


Gravity Falls: Thing I Have Become [Adopted]

by LittleMissMidnight15



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Bill Cipher - Freeform, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Dark, Dipper Pines - Freeform, Emily "Cassie" Lotté - Freeform, F/M, M/M, adopted story, dark themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 40,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23810755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissMidnight15/pseuds/LittleMissMidnight15
Summary: THIS STORY IS LOVINGLY ADOPTED FROM GravityFallsFreak7 (https://www.wattpad.com/user/GravityFallsFreak7)! THANK THEM FOR THIS EXISTING. TO READ THE FIRST PARTS, GO HERE THE ORIGINAL STORY: (https://www.wattpad.com/story/153737419-gravity-falls-thing-i-have-become).[Continues here] Now, afraid and alone, having been left to fend for himself without Bill, Dipper -now Alkaid- has no idea what to do. At least he had managed to get food when he was with Cipher, and someone to be around with, but now, where could he go? From here, the mysteries to this story start to pile up... Will someone find him? Will Ford try to kill him again? Will he ever see his beloved twin again? Will he embrace the animal Cipher has forced him to become, and lose his newly-regained humanity? Who is this girl helping him? And why is she not like everyone else? Will Cipher even come back for him?! Will he want to go back to him?! Will the girl let him go back?! Who knows...And remember, if a blond man with an eyepatch ever comes up to you offering a deal, shake his hand, and take his offer. It'll always be worth it... one way or another...-Star (Elvira/Ivoryia, all three are names for me)
Relationships: Bill Cipher/Dipper Pines
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. A Friend?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Gravity Falls: Thing I Have Become](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/610855) by https://www.wattpad.com/user/GravityFallsFreak7. 



[A/N: The only differences are that it continues off as soon as Bill leaves him in the forest for the five days and Alkaid's (Dipper's) memories and speech are somewhat worse off now. I hope you don't mind that I've used an OC, they will become central to the plot, but never assume you always know what everyone is truly like just because they seem to be alright... expect surprises! This is a bit of a "nice" chapter, but there'll be a bit of a darker tone again soon. Hope you enjoy it!]

After what was at least an hour of daydreaming, I sat up, crossing my legs and putting my hands in the gap between them. I was beginning to get a little bored here. I wanted to go see my sister again, but I knew if I did, Bill would punish me. 'But even if I did, would I be accepted? If Ford found out I was secretly seeing her, would he try to kill me again? What if he- what if he never let me see her again?' I thought.

Hopefully, none of that would happen, but I still wasn't too sure.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by a sudden pain gnawing at my stomach. I was hungry. But... there didn't seem to be anything around here to catch, even though the area that Bill had left me in was quite nice.

I carefully stood up and stretched my legs a bit, walking around the place. I paced back and forth, just trying to see if I could hear, or smell anything on the wind; something which I could satisfy my growing hunger with. But, unfortunately, I couldn't.

There was a sudden noise, like a twig snapping. I turned around, but I couldn't see anything, even with the enhanced vision I now had. I ran behind one of the bushes in the clearing, starting to quiver and let out small whimpers.

"H-hello?" A voice called out. It was soft, and feminine, so I guessed it was a girl. I curled up into a ball on the ground; I could hear the girl getting closer and closer to me, and all the while I was getting more and more anxious and afraid.

I could hear the small footsteps on the dewy grass growing closer to me. I waited in silence, until I heard the voice again, "A-are you okay?"

The girl was right in front of me, bending over my body to get a better look at me. She had seen most of my features, the ears, the tail, the nails; and yet, she didn't seem to mind. I was curious, wasn't she scared of me, like everyone else had been at first?

She put a hand on my shoulder, kneeling down to me instead. I whimpered, and kept my head down. She moved her hand up and down along my back, trying to calm me down, which, I have to say, actually worked quite well. I looked up at the girl, she was quite nice-looking.

She was noticeably pale; and had pastel pink hair, with a black streak running down the right side close to her face; she wore a pink jumper with long black sleeves, along with a black skirt to match, some black tights and some shiny navy bluish-black ballerinas.

"Hiya, little one, what's your name?" She said softly.

I hesitated, I didn't want her to know about who I used to be before I became... this, so, I just went with my other name. "Alkaid Cipher." I answered quietly.

"Well, hello Alkaid. Why are you out here, alone?"

"I, err.... I..."

She laughed quietly, "Don't worry, I already know. You're Dipper, aren't you? Dipper Pines."

"H-how did you..."

"I know many things, but how I know them need not concern you, not at the moment, just know that I only know that which I need to know, and nothing more. I promise you that I am a kind creature, I will not harm you, demi's honour." She said, making an upside-down cross sign on her chest with her thin fingers.

I looked at her, confused. "C-creature?"

"Oh, my dear, I am not entirely human, not anymore, but I think you understand how that feels."

I nodded, I did, I really did, but I was still curious. "So... you're... what...?"

She seemed to understand my jumbled-up question, and answered as simply as she could, for me to understand her. She sighed, "I... was born a long time ago. Sometime during that second war you humans started." I was surprised by what she had said, but mostly because of the fact she still called me a human; it seemed to mean she respect for me.

She continued, "I had... certain things that certain people wanted, I could make people do things by asking them in my head, I could move things around without touching them, I could see things that others couldn't, I was "special", as my mother told me when I was a littlun'. I found out later on in life that she had married a "demi", which would explain some of my freakish abilities, but you might not know what that means, so we'll leave it for now. When that second war came, I and my siblings were sent away, them to the countryside, me to a holding facility. They wanted to use me for their stupid war, but I escaped after a few years of... bad things. Since then, I've... kind of been, wandering, for a while, practising my powers too. I moved here, to Gravity Falls, a few years ago, but I like to keep myself hidden, and only really show myself to the other supernaturals, and weirds around here, that's why you probably haven't seen me before." 

I nodded, but I was worried now. Why would she be telling me all this? Did she want something in return? I shuffled away from her a bit.

She sighed, "You're still not comfortable, are you? You know, if you want me to, I could show you my true self, it's close to a human, but also not; maybe it'll help you to feel better; help you know you're not the only different one."

I first had to process what she had just said before that, my brain was working a bit slow. I felt saddened by her story, but at the same time, not. It was hard to explain, it's like I knew I should be sad, but I wasn't really that bothered by how tragic it was. I nodded my head to her last question, I wonder how different she could look, she said it was close after all...

She waved her hands down from the tips of her wavy hair down to the tips of her toes, slowly revealing small things about her. Woah, she really wasn't human, was she? For a start, her hair grew longer, much longer, and it was darker. One of her eyes was now a pinky-red colour, like hot pink, and the other eye was grey, instead of the dark, hazel brown colour her eyes had been before. Her ears were now longer, and pointed at the tips, and so were her canines. Her nails were kind of like mine, claw-like, but hers were a soft pink colour instead of a dirty yellow, like mine. She had a long, thin "devil's" tail, with a heart-like arrow thing at the end, her tail moved about a lot, idly waving back and forth behind her. She shifted a bit, and I saw small bat-like wings ripping out of her jumper to unfold, and the last thing I noticed was that she had small hard things on the top of her head. I carefully reached out to touch them, and she let me. "These are called...?"

She giggled, "Horns, but I don't really like calling them that, it sounds too much like an animal, which I am not." She saw me instantly look down when she said "animal", and she gently lifted my chin with her finger, being careful not to accidentally scratch me. "And neither are you, little babs." She said, offering me a small smile. I smiled back at her, I liked this girl, but then I realised, she had told me about who she was, and shown me her true form, and yet she had never even told me her name, though she already knew mine somehow.

"Y-your name..."

"Hmm? Oh, my name? It's Cassie, Casseopeia. But my real name is Emily Lotté, though you may choose to call me by whichever name you prefer, or simply give me another one, I have thousands!"

How could one girl have thousands of names? She must have met a lot of people, I guessed. I'd been secretly calling her 'forest girl' in my head, but I'd just call her Emily for now. "Emily." I said.

"Okay, that's fine, but just call me Cassie in front of everyone else, alright?"

I nodded, "Mhmm."

"So... Alkaid, why are you here?"

"My 'master'; he left me here. He said he'll be back in maybe five days."

"Who's your master, Alkaid?"

"Bill. Bill cipher."

She nodded, "I thought so. I know about what he's done to you, but I want you to know that whilst you are with me, in this forest, you are safe." She hugged me, and I felt a water droplet roll down my cheek. I wanted to be normal again, to be loved, be accepted, be wanted by someone, but I was never going to get it, I would never be the same again. I realised that by now I was 'crying', as Mabel had told me earlier. 'Mabel.' I thought, and started to cry harder. Emily held me tight, trying to soothe me. A couple minutes later, she let go of me, and stood up. "Do you want to come back with me, to my home? I promise you will be safe there, and no-one will harm you, so long as you don't do anything I tell you not to."

I nodded, I wanted to be away from here now, the forest was just a reminder of my old life; I remember that I used to know these forests like the back of my hand, but now... that was just a distant memory. I looked up at Emily, and she reached down and picked me up, taking me into her arms. But it wasn't to patronise, or mock me, like when Bill did it, I could sense that she cared about me, and that she wanted to help me. I let her wrap my arms around her neck, and wrap my legs around her waist, and she carried me through the forest. I warned her that Bill had told me not to go too far, but she reassured me that it was fine, saying her place was just a few minutes away.

We soon reached a large log cabin, which I assumed is where she lived. She carried me inside, and took me to a sofa, carefully laying me down. She disappeared off for a few minutes, leaving me to look around the room. It was quite big and spacious; there were fancy things hanging from the ceiling that had lots of little candle-things on them, but I didn't know what they were called; there were two other dark brown sofas, each to the other side of me, and there was a small table in the middle. I noticed a big metal box, with glass covering the front. And behind the glass were moving pictures! 'Woah...' I thought to myself.

A minute later, Emily walked into the room holding two plastic cups, there was smoke rising from the cups. "Are they on fire?!" I asked.

She dismissed my idea with a wave of her hand, "No, dear, they're just hot. Here, take it." She handed me the cup, and I took it with both my hands, immediately dropping it when I felt a sharp sting in my hands from the heat. The brown liquid inside the cup spilt all over me, causing a searing pain on my knee.

"Ah!" I cried, immediately covering my throbbing knee with my hands.

Emily sighed, quickly putting her own cup down, and using her telekinesis to quickly clean up the spilt drink. "Let me see your knee."

I shook my head, hissing loudly at the pain.

"Please, Alkaid." My name seemed to have a different effect on me, and I hesitantly uncovered my hands from my knee. She gently ran her finger over the red mark (a slight hole had been burned into my clothes where the drink had spilled), making me wince in pain. "Shh, shh... you're alright. Give me one second, burns aren't so hard to fix." She placed both of her hands above the mark, and whispered something. Both of her hands began to glow pink, and suddenly, the pain was gone, the mark was gone too, and the hole in my clothes had disappeared, like it was never there in the first place.

She stood up again, I didn't really know how to say I was grateful to her, but from the way my ears shot up and my tail wagged side to side, hitting the sofa every repeatedly, I think she had got the message. She picked up my cup, and it had magically been refilled. She handed it to me, but before she did, she said, "Now, this time, be more careful with it, you can hold mugs by the side, like I'm doing. You don't need to hold it by the middle, that hurts. But not a good pain, a bad one, you know that now, don't you? And sip it slowly too, it's called "hot" chocolate for a reason."

I nodded, and she gave me the "mug", which I held by the weird side thing like she had done before. I took a small sip of the stuff, it actually tasted nice, which was surprising. Since Bill messed up my tastebuds, most "normal" foods tasted disgusting to me, so this was a treat.

"I hope it's alright, it should taste okay, I'm well aware of the situation with food. We can go out again later, and you can hunt for something if you'd like. But for now, you shou- hey! Slow down, you don't want to be sick!"

I had practically chugged the whole mugful of that stuff, barely even pausing for breath. Once I had realised how thirsty I was, I couldn't stop myself, and besides, it tasted so good, how could I not? "S-sorry..." I mumbled out an apology.

"No, it's okay, you must've just been thirsty. Anyway, would it be alright if I left you here for a couple minutes, I just have to go do something really quickly, and then I'll be right back."

I nodded, "Okay."

She smiled, "Good, but just don't try to explore too far just yet, I can't have you getting hurt again, now can I?" She said, with a mock frown. She laughed, and then went off, seemingly up a set of steps leading higher up.

I put the mug down on the table next to me, and then I saw something glinting in the corner of my eye. 'Fire...' I looked at the "fire", it was surrounded by a box thing, with a railing in front of it. I could feel the heat radiating off of it. I slowly got up, and wandered across the room, kneeling down in front of it. I put my hand near the flames, and I felt warm, warm and happy. I laid down on my side, and watched the fire, it was enchanting, the way the flames danced and flickered, almost hypnotising actually. I wanted to sleep, I was so tired, so, so tired. And weary. All I could ever do now was rest, close my eyes and hope to gain a bit of energy from that, but I couldn't ever sleep, I would never be able to sleep again, oh how I longed for sleep though. But.. if I couldn't sleep, then why were my eyes starting to close on my own, why was my body growing weaker, why was I...

My thoughts faded into nothing as I felt a darkness start to surround me, but it wasn't scary, it was... comforting, it made me feel happy. Happy... I was... happy? Happiness felt good, I liked it. I didn't want to feel sadness again after this.

I felt myself drift away, warmed by the soft glow of the fire, lulled by the quiet crackling and popping sound of the embers falling down into the firewood. I felt peaceful... so peaceful...

Emily's POV

I came back to find Alkaid asleep by the fire. Thank the devil; it worked. I would thank Eli later. They were the one to help me make the reversal. Hopefully, Alkaid could get some rest now. I scooped him up in my arms, and carried him upstairs. I took him to the spare room I had just finished up with, and laid him down on a large grey-themed bed. He immediately curled up on the bed. I covered him up with the bedsheets so that he would stay warm. I felt so bad for the poor child, as soon as I could see Bill, I would be giving him a stern talking to, what the hell did he think he was doing?! I would murder him if he wasn't so... immortal.

I snapped my fingers and a clean set of clothes appeared. I laid them at the end of the bed with a note with his name written on it, on top, I left another note too. I left the room, after planting a small kiss on his forehead, wishing him sweet dreams, and then left the house, going off to find something...

Alkaid's POV

I woke up, 'Wait, I slept?' I asked myself. 'I mean, I must have if I'm waking up.' I sat up, I was on a nice, soft bed. I swung my legs off of the side of the bed, and jumped down. Woah, the bed was really high up... or... was I just short? I saw a pile of clothes at the end of the bed, there was a note with my name on it, so I guessed that they were for me. There was also another note, it had no writing, but when I picked it up, I heard Emily's voice in my head, "You must be awake by now, hope you had a good sleep hun. There's a room next to the door that leads out of your room, go into it, and give yourself some TLC, you need it, I'll be back by the time you're dressed and clean!" I dropped the note, in shock, but I quickly tried to think about what she had said. First off, what did "TLC" mean? Second, she said this was my room, but I was amazed. My room at Bill's house was plain and simple, it didn't even have a bed, but here, here I had books and a bed and a table and another one of those fancy candle things! There was so much! But I decided not to get too carried away, and instead, I went to find the other door she was talking about.

I found it almost straight away and turned the door handle. I stepped inside and looked around. It was a bathroom, I knew that because I remembered Fiddleford telling me what kind of things I'd find in there. There was a sink, a toilet, a tub thing, and a sh-sh-sho- oh well, I couldn't remember, but I knew that water jets come out of it and that you were meant to clean yourself in it. I still had the new clothes in my hand, so I put them down on a little beige basket thing. beside the tub thing. I took off my old clothes, and had to decide what to do with them. Maybe I could put them in the basket thing? I had a feeling that that was where they were meant to go. But... I had a different idea, I didn't want them anymore, I wasn't the same person I used to be, I didn't want a reminder of everything I once had that I had now lost, so... I flushed them. The top first, then the bottoms, straight down the toilet, never to be seen again. I sighed, it felt like I was flushing my old life away. I wasn't saying that I wasn't still Dipper, Dipper Pines, but I was almost accepting now that I had changed, and that I could never be the same again, and that if I wanted to do anything about what had happened to me, then it should be to try to adapt to what I had become, and then work from there.

Finishing my mini self-prep-talk, I stepped into the tub thing, and waited. Wait, how did I make the water come out again? I then saw little twisty things, taps I think, so I twisted one with a red ring around it. I yelped as jets of boiling water came rushing at me, and quickly turned it off. I tried the other tap, but this time it was like liquid ice rushing at me. I paused, and tried another thing. I tried both at the same time, it was alright, but a little cold. I decided to try adjusting both taps until it was just right, which worked. I felt proud of myself, even though it was such a small achievement. I saw some bottles on the side of the tub, and managed to read the writing on the back, thanks to Stan's impromptu reading lesson, to work out what they were for. Some were labelled as "shower and bath gels", so this must be a "bath" that I'm standing in, and I guess I'm 'taking' a "shower", and some other bottles were labelled "shampoo" and "conditioner". I followed the instructions on the back of the bottles, and after about 15 minutes, I had washed my hair (it was all silky and smooth now, and it smelt quite sweet) and washed my body. I decided to stay in the shower for another couple of minutes, just enjoying how nice the warm water felt on my body, which was all sore and bruised, but it felt a little better now at least.

I stepped out onto a mat, and saw a towel draped over the side of the bath. I grabbed it, drying myself, and then got dressed into my clean clothes. I liked them, I had a short-sleeved white shirt on, some black trousers (which had a hole for my tail to poke out of) and a black blazer to go over the top, the pointed tips at the back reached down to the bottom of my ankles, so I decided to leave it off for now. I smiled at myself in the mirror, but then quickly looked away when I saw how hideous I still looked. I walked out of the bathroom, and back into my room. I sat down on the bed, sighing.

I heard a knock on the door, was I meant to...? I wasn't sure whether it was Emily, but I could smell her scent so I assumed it was. I tapped back the same pattern she had, on my side of the door. I heard an amused giggle from the other side of the door, and I saw the door handle turn and the door opened. I had been right, it was Emily. "H-hi..." I stuttered out.

She smiled at me, "Mornin' sweetie. I see you've found your new clothes, do you like them?"

I nodded with a weak smile.

"Good, I'm glad, I hoped you would. Anyway, do you want to go downstairs?"

My ears perked up and my tail wagged excitedly. I wanted to see the fire again, it was nice, it made me feel safe. Emily took my obvious excitement as a yes, and carefully led me down the stairs. When we reached the bottom, I walked over to the fireplace, sitting in front of it and watching the flames dance around. Emily came and sat next to me, putting an arm round my shoulder, "You like that, huh?"

"Safe... and warm." I responded. She smiled at me, and patted her lap, I crawled into it, and settled down. She stroked my ears and tail, I made a sound that was quite like purring, but it was a little rougher.

"Alkaid?"

I looked up her, my ears pricking up in curiosity. 

"Do you want me to help you?"

I just stared at her, confused.

"The things Bill did to you, I mean."

I sat up in her lap, I was really interested now.

"I can't reverse them, well... except maybe for the sleep thing, that was just a bit of tricky magic, and maybe your nails and teeth, but the others, I can't. But, I can make them better for you to handle, so that people won't be so scared of you, you won't have to worry as much anymore. How does that sound?"

"Mhmm! Mhmm!" I said, nodding excitedly. I had no idea what she meant by making it "better" for me, but I figured I would find out soon.

"Here, give me your hand."

I hesitantly held my shaky hand out to her, and she reached out to grab a small bag from behind her. She took something that looked like a small pair of scissors. Wait, was she going to hurt me?!

I jumped off of her lap, and threw myself down to the floor, hiding my face in my knees. "Hey, hey, calm down, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Wh-what are those?!" I said, pointing at the scissor things.

"They're just nail scissors, they can't hurt you. Come on, come back and sit in my lap."

"O-oh, ok." I said sheepishly. I felt a bit silly, why was I so afraid of a pair of scissors? I crawled back to her lap, settling into it again. 

"Hand please, hun."

I held out my hand to her, still shaking, and she moved the scissors closer to my nails, I looked away, frightened in case she nipped my skin with them. She cut a large bit off of the nail, and I stared, amazed. It didn't even hurt! She looked at me, and then clipped the rest of the nail off in its entirety. Again, I didn't feel any pain. I was still looking away, she nudged me, "Look."

I looked at my nail, expecting to see a gruesome mess of my nail, but when I looked back... I smiled, my normal, human nail was there instead. "Do you want me to... do the others?"

I nodded my head vigorously, this was a step back to normality.

*timeskip about an hour to when his nails are all back to normal*

"Th-thank you!" I said happily.

She hugged me, "That's alright dear. Now, your teeth."

"C-can you remove them too?!" I asked, hopeful.

She looked down, "No, I'm sorry. They've grown into your gums by now, I assume, we can't remove them, but we can make them look less... ya know."

I nodded, at least she was trying to make me feel better about it. She took out something from the bag that looked like a knife. Emily must've felt me stiffen, because she immediately reassured me that it was called a "file", and it couldn't harm me. She asked me to open my mouth, and I did. She placed the file onto one of my teeth, and started rubbing away at the tooth. I quickly clamped my mouth shut as soon as she started; a sharp pain shot through my gums, making me hiss. "S-sorry, did that hurt?"

I nodded, it really did. She sighed, "It shouldn't have, but, I can solve that pretty quick. Here, put this in your mouth." She took out a small pill from the bag, and I did as she said. It dissolved pretty quickly, and afterwards, I couldn't feel anything in my mouth.

"I canet feel anybing." I said, slurring badly, and my long tongue, that I had now lost all control of, certainly did not help my speech at all. She laughed, and told me that that was meant to happen. She told me to open my mouth again, which I did, albeit hesitantly, and she tried again with the file. After a couple of minutes, she had finished filing my tooth down. She showed me what I looked like with a mirror, I would've hoped that my tooth was as normal-looking as it used to be, but it wasn't quite like that.

Emily saw my ears drop, and she scratched behind them, to cheer me up. "Sorry little man, but I can't file it completely, if I did, you wouldn't be able to eat. I want to let you look as normal as possible, but you can't forget that you are different now, you still have to be able to eat your prey easily enough."

I whimpered, but I understood; she could only do what was appropriate, and what she could, not what I thought was better. But still, it was better than before, and I wasn't going to say that it wasn't, because it was. She sighed, and set to work on the other teeth.

*timeskip about two hours later to midday when Alkaid's teeth have all been filed*

We had to keep stopping to give me another pill, but eventually, my teeth were all filed. They were still sharp, but they could be hidden if I didn't open my mouth as much. Maybe I could pretend to be a "mute", as Emily called it, at least around other people, so that they wouldn't freak out as much. I awkwardly thanked her, and smiled. She said my smile was beautiful, which made me feel... something else, like a weird feeling in my stomach, not hunger, no, I knew what that was like. This was... different, it was... weird. I decided to just ignore it.

Emily gently broke me out of my thoughts, "Alka? Oh, you don't mind if I call you that, do you?"

I shook my head, whenever she said my name, it wasn't harsh or mocking, like Bill, her voice was always soft and calming, helping me to feel safe, so I really didn't mind what she called me.

"Are you hungry, Alka?"

I nodded, yes, I was. I was very hungry actually, but I'd only just noticed it.

"Come on then, we can go hunt."

"W-we?" I questioned.

"Yes, we. I... have a few different "dietary requirements" to normal humans too."

I hesitated, I wanted to ask her what she ate, but I didn't want to sound rude, not after she took me into her home and looked after me, as if I was her own. Hmm, maybe she could only eat... things, like me. Maybe she ate something else, I didn't know.

"You want to know what I eat, don't you? Well, you might see soon. For now, let's go get you something to eat before you go "cray-cray" on me, huh?" She said, with a smile.

I smiled back, and she took my hand, standing up, and I followed her outside, into the forest...

[A/N: Please tell me if you like this! This is "technically" the first thing I've published (I have three other stories in the works, two are GF related, one is inspired by it; beta readers for them are needed so if you have time, just message me!), so... I hope it's to your liking! Also, let me know, do you want this to become a "BillDip" story, or for me to leave it as a weird torture-then-be-affectionate Bill(x)Alkaid thing? Or maybe you ship Alkaid and Cassiopeia (Emily), if so, what could be ship names? If people want me to make it into a BillDip or the other ship, then I'll do it (no smut tho and it will still have the dark themes with Bill/Alkaid cruelty in it). The ship name for Bill and Alkaid could be ABill, or BillKaid, or BILLAID (like KoolAid XD), if so, you can pick or make another ship name~]

\- Star 🖤

~5168 words


	2. Trust No-One, Not Even Yourself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone is slowly trying to turn Alkaid back into an animal... a thing... the creature he was forced to become before... But when he tries to fight it, it just lands him into more trouble. And just when he thinks he's found someone he can trust, they start to act differently around him, and he starts to wonder... can I really trust anyone anymore? And would it really be so bad to just... let go?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [A/N Slight gore warning, if you want to skip it, skip the part with the single asterisk (*) in bold around it, if you want to know what happens, let's just say he "eats messily", k?]

Once we were outside, Emily let go of my hand. "Sense anything?"

I breathed in as much as I could, and looked around in every direction, I _could_ smell something, _someone_ , but why were they this far out in the forest? I had two thoughts: One, just run and catch my meal, or two... _don't?_

Ever since I met Emily, ever since I found someone who didn't even _care_ whether or not I looked _hideous_ , or whether or not I was _human_ anymore, I thought I had a choice. Bill wasn't here anymore, there was no-one to tell me what I could and couldn't do. I didn't have to be the _monster_ anymore. I didn't want this. I didn't want any of this in the first place. I had just wanted my family safe...

It was weird, I'd never felt this before, I felt... _regret_ , I think... about lots of things, but especially about what I had _become_. Before I wouldn't even hesitate to kill, just to eat, but now, I-

"Alkaid?" Emily gently broke me out of my thoughts. My ears pricked up a bit. "What's the matter? If you can't find anything, I can-"

"Mm, mm." I hummed, shaking my head. I pretended to not be hungry, this wasn't what my mind was telling me to do though, it was _screaming_ out for me to eat, but maybe if I ignored my hunger, it would go away... right? "I don't... feel very good..." I lied.

She sighed, "Are you sure you don't want to eat? It might help y'know."

I nodded, "I... I am sure."

She sighed again, "Well, can you stay here for a minute? _You_ may not want to eat, but _I_ need to. I promise I won't take long. Here, why don't you come and sit over here, it's nice and quiet here." She led me to a small spot just in front of the house, it was surrounded by a wall of bushes, and the sunlight streamed in through the treetops, lighting up the area. It really was quite nice actually.

I nodded, and sat down, resting my head on the top of one of the bushes, as if it was a pillow.

Emily smiled, "I'll be back in a tick, Alkaid." She said, as she walked off into the rest of the trees, and disappeared.

Once she was gone, I tried to rest, and relax. I thought that ignoring my hunger would be easy, but it wasn't. For every minute that I didn't eat, the pain in my stomach grew more and more intense, it was a dull pain at first, but it soon grew so painful that it was almost agonising. I curled up tightly, trying to keep calm.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed since Emily had left, but I thought I was going to lose control, until I heard her gentle voice calling out for me, calling me back to myself. I forced myself to act fine, and put on a small, albeit slightly _dazed_ , smile.

"Alkaid! Alkaid!" She called out happily. She eventually reached me, but then frowned when she saw me, "Alkaid... are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, fine!" I said quickly; my voice squeaked a bit, but I didn't think it was too noticeable.

"Alkaid, you're burning up, your face is red. And you're curled up... so tightly... you're in pain, aren't you?"

"N-no." I stuttered out, making it even _more_ obvious that I was in pain.

She sighed, "Come here, Alkaid." She said, walking up to me. I reached out to her, but as soon as she touched me, I flinched, and hissed loudly at her; it sounded more like a snarl. I was shocked by my own reaction, what was _wrong_ with me? I wasn't afraid of her, I wasn't scared of her, I wasn't angry with her, so why did I do _that_? I looked down, feeling bad about it.

Emily didn't actually look too surprised, she just looked sympathetic for me. "It's not your fault, come on, Alkaid." She tried to pick me up again, and this time I let her. She walked us back to the house, and she let herself in, setting me down on the sofa.

She gently pet my head, making me feel better. "Alka, is there anything going on that I don't know about?" She asked gently.

I shook my head slightly.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded, sitting up. The hunger pains had somehow lessened, but they were still very much there.

"Good, as long as you're okay." She sighed, "Want something to drink?"

I nodded, maybe it could stop the pains completely.

She clicked her fingers, and three cups appeared in front of us. I grabbed one and drank whatever was inside of it, I think it was water. It tasted _awful_ , and I wasn't even sure if my body would be able to "process" it anymore after everything Bill did to me, but once again, as soon as I drank it, I realised how thirsty it was. I quickly finished the first cup, and then grabbed the second, chugging it down just as fast as the first.

Just as I was about to reach out for the last cup, Emily put her hand on my arm, "No." She said sternly. I whined, I wanted- no, _needed_ that last drink, it was making the pain go away, however bad it tasted. I angrily slapped her hand away, and grabbed the third one anyway, drinking it down in an instant.

 _"Alkaid!"_ She shouted, making me jump and drop the cup. I had never heard her shout, or raise her voice before. I didn't know what to do, should I be angry with her, and shout back, or feel bad for not listening to her, and apologise? My mind decided for me, and I whimpered, feeling really bad, she was just trying to help me after all, so _why_ did I do it? I mumbled out a quick apology, and she sighed, "It's fine, but don't do it again, _do you understand me_?" She sounded quite stern.

"Ah! Yes! Yes! I'm sorry!" I shouted, quickly shrinking back from her.

"Hey, hey... don't be so frightened, I just _don't want you doing something you might regret_."

I was pretty sure that that was meant to reassure me, but for some reason, it unnerved me a bit. _'Doing something you might regret.'_ What could that mean? I decided not to worry about it too much, I was just overthinking it... well... I hoped I was.

I nodded, but didn't move closer to her again. "Oh, now, come on, now... I haven't frightened you that much, have I? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to react like that, I just don't want you to end up getting sick, drinking all that water like that."

"O-okay." I shuffled over to her, and laid down on her lap again. She pet my head again too, knowing I liked it, and scratched behind my ears. I smiled to myself, _'S_ _ee? Nothing to worry about, she's not like Bill. She_ _wouldn't_ _hurt me.'_ I thought.

After a while, we had started to watch the weird box thing I discovered yesterdat, the "t.v.", Emily called it. I faintly remembered watching it before, with... with... with _my sister_. But no, I wasn't going to think about that anymore. I closed my eyes, and sighed, trying to relax and take my mind off of it...

** Emily's POV **

After the tenth episode of Ducktective, I finally noticed that Alkaid was asleep. He looked so peaceful, I didn't want to disturb him, he _deserved_ that sleep, more than anyone. I watched another while's worth of shows, and when it reached about eight o'clock, I decided to take Alka up to bed. I carefully got up, holding him in my arms, and carried him upstairs, taking him to his room.

Once I got into the room, I sat him down, and changed him into a clean pair of pyjamas; it wouldn't be fair to let him sleep in his day clothes, it would be uncomfortable for him. When I was done, I laid him back down on the bed, tucking him under the covers, and giving him a quick kiss to the forehead. "Goodnight, don't let the bedbugs bite... Sweet dreams, little one." I whispered, walking out the room again, and shutting the door behind me. Hopefully, he'd sleep well tonight...

** Alkaid's POV **

I woke up with a start, breathing heavily. I must've had a nightmare, though... I couldn't remember anything about it, so it can't have been from Bill, he'd have made _sure_ to make the memory of it stay in my mind, just to haunt me even more.

I looked around the room, the door was closed, and the curtains were shut, Emily must've gone to bed, it was probably around midnight, but I wasn't sure. Spending all that time with Bill _really_ messed up my perception of "time", I couldn't keep track of time after the first week or so after he... after he...

I didn't want to finish the sentence, and instead tried to forget about it. I stood up, nearly falling off of the bed again like I did before. I noticed I was in pyjamas, Emily must have changed me into them for me. I smiled, I felt safe, and happy again, and for once, I wasn't in pain. It was like when I was back at the- 

I immediately yanked my head up, _what was that_? I heard a noise, it sounded like a scream. I heard it again, and jumped, in fright. I ran over to the window, and looked out of the curtains, but I couldn't see anyone. I started to back away to the bed, but I was stopped midway by a sharp pain in my stomach. I fell to my knees, clutching my stomach, and trying to breathe properly. I wished for the pain to go away, to stop! But it didn't, it just got worse and worse.

Slowly, a voice crept into the back of my mind, _"Hungry...?"_ The voice whispered.

I nodded, I must be to be in this much pain.

_"Come, Alkaid, you know better than to starve yourself..."_

I slowly stood up, and walked to the door, staggering a bit. I walked down the stairs, having to hold onto the bannister to stop myself from falling, and managed to get to the door. I froze, no, what was I doi-

"The longer you resist, the worse the pain will get." The voice said, cutting me off.

The pain shocked me again, and I tried not to scream out in agony.

"Come on... just that little bit further... I have a surpise waiting for you..."

A surprise? I opened the door, and stepped out. I sniffed, I could sense something, _someone_. No... it was like there were two people, but one smelt... weird, not like a human does. But still, it was what I needed, _food_. I instinctively started running in the direction that the scents came from, and stopped when I saw two figures in the dark. One looked... _familiar_ , and the other I didn't recognise at all. When I looked closer, I realised that the first figure seemed to be holding the other, but it was so dark that I couldn't see much, even if my vision _was_ usually really good.

"Do you want to eat or not?!" The voice snapped. I realised it was coming from the first figure now.

I ran closer to the person they were holding, and stared at them, they looked so good, so-

*****

  
I sank my teeth into their neck, angrily tearing away at the soft flesh with my teeth, just laughing as the person started to scream and yell, trying unsuccessfully to get me away from them. I just snapped their neck, and they went quiet. I continued to feast, but it was hard, especially with my teeth now all filed down, though I still managed to devour every little bit of the body, smiling with each new taste of the flesh.

Once it was over, and there was nothing left of them, not even one bone, I fell to my knees, happily licking all of the blood off of my fingers, arms, legs, and face. When I was done, I still felt hungry, _really_ hungry. I looked back up at the first figure, and whined.

They laughed, "Still hungry, Pine Tree?" 

I was pretty sure they were smiling at me, I could just tell. I was still in a weird kind of hungry-haze, they- well, I think _they_ were a boy- sounded so familiar, and if I wasn't so wrapped up in my own hunger, I probably would have been able to work out who it was, but I couldn't for now, and they helped me eat, so they can't be that bad, _right_?

But that name was also way too familiar, _'Pine Tree'_ , it made me uneasy for some reason, but I couldn't focus on that right now.

I looked down, and saw the blood again, instantly making me burst out into laughter, I felt good, I felt _happy_ , at least I thought that's what I felt. I looked up at the person, "You can... You... _More_?!" I said, not really making sense.

The person laughed, and bent down closer to me, "Of course... if it's humans you want?" They asked curiously. I could've sworn they were smirking.

I nodded my head vigorously, something about this felt... _off_ , but I didn't care.

The person stepped out to the side, and suddenly behind them was a line of people, all with a weird blue glow around them,, but I wasn't sure what that was.

But still, it was something to eat, and I grinned, and ran towards them, viciously tearing the flesh, bones, and blood off of each person.

They were pitiful, standing there so helplessly like that, it just urged me on even more, to scratch and mangle their petrified faces, to feast upon them like some kind of cannibal. And I loved it, I loved every single second of it. Even thought that frightened me.

*****

  
Wait, no, what was I _doing_? _'I'm not a monster!'_ I thought. I was starting to come back to my senses.

I turned back to look at the first figure, _they did this, they did it_! I sprinted towards them, the urge to attack them becoming too strong to ignore. But as soon as I got close to them, I saw a bright blue flash in front of my eyes and I suddenly felt my body go limp, starting to get drowsy. I hissed at the person, starting to slump closer to the ground. 

I soon ended up laying down on the forest floor, barely able to keep my eyes open, letting out small whimpers and whines. 

"Don't fight it, _the_ _animal_ , the _thing_ you _so desperately_ don't want to become. You could feel happy all the time again, like before, never having to worry about fear, or sadness, or anger, or pain. But you _have_ to keep getting yourself into trouble. You're just a _thing_ , Alkaid, just a _thing_ , a _creature_. You have _no purpose_ , _no place on this world_ , your own _family_ hates you. So why keep trying to be normal again? It will never happen, and you know it. And the sooner you realise that the better."

He stepped closer to me, "But if you _ever_ dare try to attack me again, you won't live to see the consequences." He said coldly. "I'm coming back for you, pet, so don't you _dare_ think you've escaped me. You're _mine_ , and mine forever. Mine to play with, mine to mess with, _mine_." He said creepily, as my vision started to get blurry. He bent down even closer to me, probably smirking, " _Oh_ , but _look_ at you _now_! You're _so_ _pathetic_ , aren't you, thing? You can't even keep your eyes open, oh how _cute_. You're lucky I haven't done much worse. But perhaps I will, just to see you scream and cry and shriek, I could be crueler than I've ever been!" He said happily. "And trust me, I've had _billions_ of years of experience." He whispered into my ear.

I looked up at him, frightened, and confused.

"Did you think I just helped you to be _kind_? You're so naive, little Pine Tree. And it works in my favour. But, no, I just thought I'd check up on you, make sure you haven't _killed yourself_ yet, which, you nearly did, you _stupid_ creature. You should be grateful I fed you."

I couldnt focus on him, I felt my eyes start to close, and I felt darkness start to surround me, drowning out the voice...

The person quickly drew their hand back, and smacked me across the face. I sat up, panting in shock.

"I _said_ , you should be _grateful_ for me saving you!"

"U-uhhh... thank you!" I stuttered out, trying to back away from the person. They grabbed me by my shirt collar, throwing my head to the ground, and I instantly blacked out on the impact.

" ** _Don't you dare try to get away from me, you ungrateful piece of crap!_** " They screamed. They soon noticed that I had blacked out, and let go of me, dusting their hands off with an evil smirk. "I'll be back for you, oh, don't you worry about that!" He said, starting to walk away, back into the forest, as if he was never there...

***Timeskip to early morning; about 5 hours later***

I woke up, breathing heavily. My head hurt _really_ badly, and I was freezing cold. I thought I heard something, and I practically screamed my lungs out.

Emily came rushing into the room, "Alkaid!" She shouted, seeing me shaking violently. She ran over to the bed, and hugged me tight. "Shh... shh... it's okay, it's okay... shh... calm down now... I'm here, I'm here... shh, shh, shhhh..."

She picked me up into her lap, and I just laid there, shaking. I hated this! I hated all of this! I hated feeling like this, feeling sad, feeling afraid, wanting to run, _to run away_! It was too much, too much for me to handle! I hissed to myself, not really knowing how to express all that, and soon calmed down. Emily asked me what had happened, but I couldn't tell her; wait, I... couldn't remember anymore. I remembered waking up, then... getting up, then...? No, wait... or did I fall back to sleep? I didn't know anymore, it was confusing, it was like my memory of it was suddenly... gone... wiped from my mind...

Emily held me there, and just talked quietly to me, it was nothing interesting, and I didn't talk back, I only listened; but it was something to focus on, something to distract me with, and it worked... 

I sighed quietly to myself; if only I could stay with her forever... I wanted to, I really did, but... that was if Bill didn't come back to take me again. Maybe he wouldn't... maybe he would let me be free... I mean, I hadn't _seen_ him since, so...

I entertained that idea in my head, to comfort myself, letting myself think that, maybe, _just maybe_ , he would forget about me, or decide not to care about me anymore... yeah, maybe I could be free... maybe... I...

I felt my eyes begin to close again, and this time, as it came, I welcomed sleep...

***Timeskip three days later; Friday morning***

Me and Emily got on quite well; she cared for me, and looked after me, and I... I was someone for her to spend time with, and focus on. She didn't have to hide herself around me.

At about... what must've been six o-clock, I was about to go out, to help gather some things we needed, like firewood, and maybe, just maybe, an animal or two if I was lucky enough to catch one.

Every time I would go to bed now, I was always somewhat hungry, but whenever I woke up, I felt _fine_ , I felt _good_ actually, _happy_. So I never ate anything that Emily offered me, and I thought it was worrying her, so I lied to her, telling her every time I went out, that I had managed to find something to eat. And she seemed happy with that, so she never forced me to eat anything, thinking that I had already eaten. Apart from yesterday, when she-

I snapped myself out of my thoughts, and quickly opened the door, stepping outside, and closing it behind me. I smiled, I loved coming out into the forest, especially in the morning. Everything smelt so... _fresh_ , and the rising sun was so beautiful to watch...

My tail wagged in the air, and my ears were pointed up, as I walked past the first set of trees. I immediately saw something Emily could use as firewood, and gathered it up. I figured a few handfuls of it would be enough, so picked up a few more pieces of the dry wood. I sighed, and waited there for a few minutes, just to watch the sunrise, and then started to head back to the house.

I turned right back around though, dropping the wood. I had heard something, like a twig snap. I think it was some kind of little animal. I didn't hesitate to chase after it, it was kind of... _fun_ , now, chasing after my prey. It was... weird; after that night three days ago, I've found myself... acting... _weird_. I'm not sure, I mean, I _feel_ happy a lot more, but... it's like I don't feel much else. The other night, I remember Emily had gone out for a while, but when she came back, she had a few bruises and cuts; she told me she'd gotten into a "little scrap" with someone. She looked sad, upset, like she might have been crying, but... I couldn't help but laugh, and joke around about it like some mad person. I think it worried her. It was secretly worrying _me_ , but I didn't focus on it too much, the more I think about it, the more it'll happen, that's what I told myself.

I heard the animal move around again, and I spotted it, hiding within the trees. _1, 2,-_ **Ah**!" I went to pounce on the defenseless little animal, but as soon as I got past the tree, I felt someone grab me by the neck, dragging me to the floor. I couldn't see who it was, "Emily!" I screamed, trying to get away, but I was being held firmly by whoever had grabbed me. I kicked and screamed, but it was no use, the person didn't let go.

"Emily!" I screamed again, as loud as I could. I suddenly felt someone smack me right across the face, making me wince, and stop screaming.

The person stopped dragging me, and let me fall to the ground, my face landing in a pile of leaves. I rubbed my neck, sore from the person's iron grip, and slowly turned around to face them. I immediately recognised who it was, and tried to run. For some reason though, he didn't seem to chase me, or stop me. He just stood there and watched... with a huge grin on his face. "Go run back to your _precious little Emily_ , Pine Tree. I'm sure she'll be _very_ _glad_ to see you." He muttered, laughing uncontrollably, before disappearing in a flash of blue flames...

I ran all the way back to the house, panting, and out of breath. I slammed the door open, "Emily! Emily, **BILL**! He's here, he- _w_ _h-what_?!"

Emily suddenly appeared in front of me, staring at me with a devilish grin on her face, and a yellowish tint to her eyes. "Oh, Alkaid, you're _back_!" She said, starting to walk towards me. I backed up, but she still didn't stop.

"E-Emily _...?_ ** _Emily_** _?!"_

...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [A/N: I'm sorry that this is kinda short, I did write this out to be published for yesterday morning, but it got deleted, and I had to write it again, and I ALREADY have writer's block (I blame my other stories and my crazy mind, soo.... ideas appreciated if you want to suggest something, I mean... I already have the rest of the story pretty much planned out, but some filler ideas would be good (like things that could happen in "between" the main bits)), so... sorry. Hope you like it at least. Sorry it's not as good as the first chapter... SLIGHT SPOILER (probably not idk) If you're wondering, the idea is that Alkaid is slowly losing himself to "the animal", thanks to a "certain person", who keeps visiting him, and making him "do things" at night, whilst he thinks he's dreaming, to try and make him lose his mind completely again, but he doesn't realise it, he doesn't know it. And now, the person he trusted, might just be his downfall... or will they? Will he ever escape this world of torture and pain, and be happy again? We'll see...]
> 
> 4025 words
> 
> ~Star 🖤


	3. My Name Is Alkaid Cipher, Not Dipper Pines.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alkaid's in trouble and seemingly, the person he thought he could trust, has turned on him. Will he escape and find the culprit, or will he die trying to find out?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [A/N: This took an ungodly amount of time to write and edit, so I hope you like it. Sorry it took so long, but at least it's here now, so... yay! Also, warning, there is a slight bit of violence in some parts, and there's also Mabcifica, but only because I needed a second plotline to focus for a while, because, for reasons I won't tell you yet, our little angel Alka (😇😊 ironic, I know), is, well... well, he's asleep for quite a while. But, if you don't like Mabcifica (no, well, actually, at least, if you're going to moan about not liking it), then don't read it, simple enough. It's nor central to the plot, it only happens like three times, and the most they'll ever do is pretty much just hug, okay? Bc they're still too young, I guess. I respected your guys' decision for me not to make it into a BillDip, because I'm doing this for you, and not just for me, even though that was what I planning to do before, so please, respect my decision to include a bit of Mabcifica, because it's sweet, and I like it, okay? Please don't hate me for it, two girls hugging each other is not going to hurt anyone, and neither is it going to kickstart a global pandemic (😜), so please, don't hate me. But now, with that said, enjoy!]

"What's the matter, Mason, afraid of little ol' Emily?" Emily said, starting to close-in on me. I started to panic, what the hell was she doing?! I backed up as far as I could go, but I eventually ended up slamming my back into the door. I winced, and sank to my knees, hiding my head in between my knees, my breaths becoming short and quick.

"G-get away from me!" I shouted, my voice muffled by my hands.

Emily bent down over me, and laughed hysterically. "And- why- would I- do- that?!" She said, in between laughs. I felt her nails dig into my knees, making me scream out in pain, but there was nothing I could do. She yanked my head up, grabbing a fistful of my hair in her hand, and made several blows to my poor face, leaving a trail of dark blood trailing onto the floor as she drew her hand back to give me yet another hit. I tried to struggle away from her, but she was keeping me as still as she could with some kind of telekinesis.

"Emily... what... happened to you?" I whispered weakly.

"What are you on about, you brat?" She said, pulling back from me, and thankfully, stopping the hits for a second.

"You... you've changed..." And idea suddenly came to my head. "B-Bill... He did this..."

"Bill? What does that freak have to do with me?" She screamed, getting closer to me again. She pulled my legs away from me, so that I was lying flat on the ground. I tried to struggle, but I could only move my hands a couple inches. She leaned down closer to me, smiling, and then I realised. Without her seeing, I pulled the bottom of my shirt closer to me with my fingertips, scrunching it up a bit, and eventually reached the pocket. I took out the object inside: it was a little silver trinket, shaped like the letter 'A', for 'Alkaid'. She had given it to me as a gift to cheer me up one night, after a particularly miserable morning, it was the one morning where I had felt like rubbish, so she had given it to me as a gift. She had told me not to let it touch her though, so I wondered if maybe I could use it to get away from her?

She put her hand on the floor next to mine, steadying herself as she inched closer to my face. I held my breath, and slowly reached out to touch her hand, struggling against her magic, and hoping that she wouldn't notice me. Thankfully, she didn't, and I pressed the silver object into her skin, digging it into her skin with all my strength, leaving a deep scar. I saw the flesh start to melt around the edges of the burn mark, and she screamed, her voice distorted and demonic. She fell back, grabbing her hand, and she shrieked and cried, the pain visible in her eyes, which were now suddenly free of the yellowish tint they hand a few moments before. Her magic's hold over me diminished, and I saw that as my chance to escape. I got up as quickly as I could, wincing in pain, and grabbed for the door, pulling it open as fast as I could. I crossed through onto the porch, and looked back for a second, Emily was screaming my name, desperate for... something.

"Alkaid! Alkaid, please, come back! It's a trick! Bill's using you! Please stay with me! He's going to do it to you all over again! You've got to trust me! You've got to stay please, Alka, please!"

Most of her sentences were muffled as I felt the blood rush to my head after I had stood up so quickly a few seconds ago. I felt dizzy for a second, then started to run. Run, anywhere, as fast as I could, I just had to get away... I didn't think, and just ran anywhere that my legs would carry me...

A few minutes later, I stopped, and collapsed back against a tree, panting heavily. I looked up, and I could feel the sunlight burning into my skin, making me sweat even more than before. I collected a few more breaths, then crawled over to a more shaded area, and laid down on the grass, surrounded by a few bushes.

I tried to get the memories of what had just happened, out of my head, but all I could see, was the pitiful sight of Emily, lying on the floor, screaming and crying, her beautiful pink hair now tangled and a mess, and her pale white skin now smothered in my own, dark red blood. The thought of it repulsed me, but for some reason, I found myself letting out a small laugh. The more I thought about it, the more I started to laugh, until eventually, my laughter morphed into some kind of deranged, maniacal cackling. I tried to stop myself, but it couldn't, I just felt too good thinking about it...

*timeskip 30 minutes*

I must've passed out, after all the laughing, and I "woke up" a while later, still in the gap in the middle of all the bushes. I yawned, and then stretched a bit, sitting up. I noticed that still had blood on my hands, face, and knees, so I got to work licking away at it, not really minding how weird that actually was. What? It tasted good. Once I was all "clean", I was about to get up, when I heard a noise. It was a voice, a girl's voice. One that could only belong to... Mabel. Wait, why was she here? This was a pretty deep part of the forest, at least a good hour away from the Mystery Shack, so how did she get here? I decided to stay quiet, I really wanted to see her, but if she was with someone like Ford, it might not end well, for the both of us. I swallowed a whimper, and tried to hide, but I could hear her footsteps drawing closer to me, and I could only curl up and lay against the bushes to try to keep hidden, which obviously wasn't effective.

I soon heard another voice, which I recognised as Pacifica's.'Crap, there are two of them here!' I thought. I heard them get closer and closer, until I heard Mabel gasp.

"Hmm, maybe one day, Paz. It'd be so nice, we could even bring- WAIT, DIPPER?!" She screamed, making me immediately flinch and cover my ears because how loud her voice was. She slowly approached me, and knelt by my back, gently reaching out to touch me. She felt my hair, making me flinch again at her soft touch, and I pulled my head forward, trying to move away. "Dipper, is that you? I'm not going to hurt you, I promise." She said softly. I slowly turned around, rolling onto my other side, and looked up at her. She had grown a lot, and so had Pacifica, who was standing just behind her.

Pacifica put a hand on Mabel's shoulder, gently trying to pull her away from me. "Mabel, maybe we should..."

"No, Paz, we have to help him." Mabel said quietly, glancing back at her. She stared at me, and I stared back at her, curiously, until she eventually spoke again, clearing her throat just before she did. "Dipper?"

I lowered my head, bringing it closer to my chest, but didn't respond.

"Dipper, are you okay?"

Still no response.

"Dipper, please. You've got to trust me!"

I winced, her words were a painful reminder of what happened with Emily. I saw Mabel's eyes widen, and she suddenly pulled me up with her arms, and wrapped me in a hug, but I didn't hug back. "Dipper what's wrong?" She said, and I could hear her voice start to break a little, like she was starting to cry. I put my arms around her, remembering what she had told me before about crying, and I hoped that it would comfort her, but I don't think it did. She eventually pulled away, grabbing my hands in a death-grip. "Dipper, please talk to me..." She said, looking down.

I went to speak, but when the words came out, they were jumbled, and random, like they had been before... before... a week ago. "I... I am okay..."

"No, you're not... Why are you out here? Have you been here the whole time?"

I shook my head, "N-no, I haven't. G-girl. Help, safe... then not."

"You... you met a girl?"

I nodded my head, "Care."

"She cared for you?"

Another nod, and I smiled dopily, "Yes, nice."

"She was nice? What was her name?"

"E-Emily."

"Emily? I've never heard of an Emily here, have you, Paz?" She asked, looking back at Pacifica.

Pacifica came closer to me, and kneeled down next to Mabel, "Emily? As in, Emily Lotté, goes by the name of "Cassie" sometimes? Young girl with pink hair? Shy? Human?" She asked me.

I nodded, ignoring the last part, but Mabel just looked confused, "How did you know that?" She asked Pacifica.

"Simple, my family kept records of everyone who lives here. I know most, if not all, the names of the people in the town, even if I don't know much about them. Cassie lives mainly on the outskirts, so you probably don't see her often."

"Oh." Mabel said, looking back at her.

"Where is she now, Dipper?" Pacifica asked me.

"H-her place."

"Her place? You mean her log cabin thing?"

I nodded, "Mhmm."

"What happened to her? Is she alright?"

"Hurt, bad."

"She's hurt?"

"She hurt me."

"She hurt him? Mabel, that girl would never hurt anyone, she has a heart of pure gold, how could she have hurt anyone?" She said, looking at Mabel.

Mabel shrugged, "I'm not sure." She looked back at me,and ran her hand down the side of my face, I could see the pity in her eyes, and then she gasped. She had seen the scratches I had from Emily, and she gently ran her fingers along one of the cuts. I felt it sting, and I hissed, pushing her away from me. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't realise it would..." She tried to explain.

"Didn't realise what... it wouldn't?" I stuttered out.

"...Hurt... I didn't realise it would... hurt?" She said, as if asking a question.

"Does. It stings." I 'answered'. "It stings."

"Do you need help cleaning it up?" She asked. It must've started bleeding again then.

I shook my head, where would she have taken me anyway?

"We have to take you back home, come on." She said, standing up.

"Home?"

"The Shack." She clarified. "We have to take you back to the Shack."

"No. Not welcome. Hurt, last time. Afraid."

"But Dipper! It's your home! You've nowhere else to go! How will you survive?!"

"I... I'm not like you." I responded.

"Not... like me? We're twins! We're practically the same! Look, you even look like yourself now! You look more like me! Someone fixed you up again!" She said, pointing out my non-existent claws, and my now-normalish teeth. But that didn't mean anything, I had still changed a lot, changed too much now, too much to be normal again, or at least how I used to be. I had accepted this now, well, mostly, anyway.

"Not human as you. Can't come back. Will be killed." I said, my voice a whisper.

"Nonsense! You're coming back with me, come on!" She got a bit closer to me, and picked me up. Wow, she was a lot taller than me now, when did that happen? I tried to resist, and wriggled about a bit, but she had a firm grip on me. With one hand, she balanced me on her hip, and with the other, she gently pet my head, making me do the weird purr-growl thing again, and relax. She started to walk slowly back to the Shack, with Pacifica following close behind, the two of them humming something to me to calm me, and that, along with the gentle rocking as Mabel, took each new step, soon lulled me to sleep...

*Timeskip to an hour and a half later*

I woke up just as she opened the door to the Shack, but I was still pretty drowsy, and fell back to sleep quite quickly, as soon as she pet my head again.

She carried me into the kitchen. "Grunkle Stan!" She whispered-yelled. The old man, who was sitting on a chair, obviously having snoozed off for a while, yanked his head up, and saw me, sleeping on Mabel's side, and he nearly screamed, but Mabel put a finger to her lips, shushing him. "Shh, he's asleep. Let him rest."

"What the-?! How did he even get here?!"

"He didn't, I found him, down by the old cabin, in the deeper part of the woods. He needs help, I think he got attacked."

"But he can't be here!"

"Why not?! This is his home too, you know, especially after... our parents."

Stan sighed, "I know sweetie, but it's not safe for him here anymore! If Stanford-"

"He won't." She said, cutting in. "And besides, he's downstairs in the lab right now, he won't come up unless it's an emergency, you know that."

He sighed again, "Alright, fine, bring him here, to the living room." He stood up slowly, and then walked to the living room. Mabel carried me over, and then gently laid me down on the sofa, being careful not to wake me. "Go and get the medical kit." Mabel nodded, and then went off to find the item. She brought it back, and unzipped it, handing a few cotton pads, gels, and plasters to Stan. He took them from her, and sat on the end of the sofa, next to me.

He looked over the cuts, gently grazing his finger over each one, and I instinctively growled, in a low voice, but remained asleep. He patted a cotton pad over each cut, absorbing the blood leaking out from them, and he waited until the bleeding stopped completely.

Once it had, he moved onto the gel. He squirted out a small amount and covered each cut with it. As soon as it touched the raw skin, my eyes flew open, and I sat up, growling and hissing loudly, my eyes like little slits. I glared at him, breathing heavily, but I felt someone gently push me back down, and try to calm me down. I presumed it was Mabel, and I felt a bit safer. It still burned like hell though, it was probably one of those special gels. You know, the ones with the special chemicals in it that cleans stuff when it gets infected, I just didn't know it's name.

My 'twin' played with my hair a bit, trying to calm me down again, and once I was pretty drowsy, and dozy, my 'Grunkle', continued with his work. He gently placed plasters over each one, and rolled a small bandage around my face, just to make sure that each deep tear would heal, and gave me a small kiss on my forehead, making me smile in my sleep.

He sighed once he was done, "What do we do with him?" He asked, half to himself, half to the Mabel and Pacifica.

"He can stay here, in our room. The door is locked whenever I'm not in there, so there's no way that Gru- that Ford, would see him, unless he physically broke the door down, which is unlikely, so he would be safe up there."

"Yes, but wouldn't he need to get food at some point? People would notice him wondering around the forest." Pacifica objected.

"Good point." Stan said. "So he can't stay here, it's too risky."

"But Stan!" Mabel whined, protesting.

"Shh! We can't let Sixer hear us, be a little quieter!"

"Sorry. But still, Stan! We can't let him stay outside, he'll starve! Or get hurt!" She whisper-yelled.

"I wasn't suggesting that, but he just can't stay here, is what I mean."

"What about... Could he stay at my house? There's no-one else there except for me, so he would be safe. And we could let him stay in one of the spare rooms, I have loads. Plus, it would be way easier to find him food, I could just send someone to do it, no questions asked." She said.

"Hmm, yeah, I guess that could work. You're good, Northwest, you're good. But we can't move him yet, or at least I don't think we can. If we wake him up, the kid might go crazy on us, we don't know what's happened to him since last time. For all we know, he could've had his mind messed up by Bill again, so we just don't know."

"Okay..." Mabel said, sighing, before an idea popped into her head. "Oh! Wait, should I go and pack a bag for him? All his old clothes are still in his wardrobe, so..."

"Yeah, go on, that's a great idea sweetie." He said, finally cracking a bit of a smile. "And you too Pazzie, go and help her."

The two girls grinned, and nodded, running off to pack a bag for me, whilst Stan sat down by my side, mentally cursing the world for having to be so messed up, and cruel, and wondering why his brother couldn't just love me, like he did (albeit with a lot of help from Mabel). I was his own grand-nephew for god's sake! Was his family really not that important to him or something?

Stan sighed, and stroked the side of my face, making me do the purr-growling thing again and making my ears perk up and my tail move back and forth a bit. He chuckled, and decided to try scratching behind my ears, being careful not to touch the stitch marks though. My eyes opened slightly, and I pushed myself up onto all fours, and crawled into his lap, like a little child, and curled up, letting him continue to pet me. It was nice, I missed this. Being here, being with my family, spending time with them, feeling safe, but I knew it wouldn't be for long. I pushed the thought away, and closed my eyes again, soon falling back to sleep.

Stan looked down at me with a weak smile, and hugged me close to him, "Oh, kid... what did he do to you?" He whispered to himself. He just wished everything could go back to normal again, like how it used to be, but he knew that that would never happen...

Mabel's POV

Me and Paz ran up the stairs, and into my attic room. Dipper's side of the room had now been turned into Paz's side, but everything had been kept just as it had been left before he was taken. The only thing that had changed was that there were now a few of Paz's things dotted about the place, but apart from that, his side of the room was pretty much untouched. I wanted it that way, it was comforting to me to see all his stuff still right there where it used to be, and I sometimes imagined that he was still there, reading his journal, talking to me, goofing around, just like we used to...

I sighed, and I walked up to the wardrobe, the one with Dipper's old clothes in, and suddenly, I didn't feel too cheerful about this anymore. Paz came up behind me, and rested her hand on my shoulder, "It's going to be okay. Come on, we can do this together." She said gently, holding up a large bag for us to pack Dipper's stuff into.

"Okay..." I nodded, and I took the bag from her. We started sorting through his old clothes, only picking out things that we knew would probably fit him, as he looked a little less... noodle-y, than he used to. He wasn't 'big', he was still thin, but he clearly must've been getting a good food supply from somewhere. That thought made me shiver.

I shook myself out of my thoughts once again, and carried on searching through his stuff, until we had about 10 different outfits, each one pretty much only consisting of shorts and a t-shirt, as that was pretty much all he ever used to wear, but we did have a few jumpers and so thrown in there as well. I wanted to search for more, to see if there was anything else that might fit him, but Pacifica told me not to worry, and that she could get him some clothes if she needed to. I hesitated, but decided to trust her, I knew she was right anyway.

I sighed, and was about to walk downstairs, when I remembered something. "Here! Hang on! Take this!" I shouted, going off to find something. I returned a few minutes later, holding out a walkie-talkie, and a note with a little message scribbled on it, to her. She took them, and stuffed the note into her pocket, and the walkie-talkie into the bag. I looked at Paz again, and she nodded, and we headed back downstairs, and into the living room, where Dipper was curled up, laying on Grunkle Stan's lap. I cleared my throat to get his attention.

"Oh, hey, have you finished packing?" He asked, looking up.

"Yeah." I said, looking down, and fiddling with the bottom of my sweater.

"Well, he's still asleep, he's barely moved at all. In fact-" He stopped when he heard a sudden thud, it sounded like it came from downstairs. "Crap, he's coming up. That was the elevator. Here, Pacifica, can you take him?" Grunkle Stan said quickly.

"Yeah, give him here." She said, walking over to him. He gently dropped my sleeping twin into her arms, and she cradled him to her chest, shushing him a bit as he stirred. Grunkle Stan led us to the door, and ushered us outside.

"Quickly, get as far away from here as you can. Don't come back, not yet. Mabel, you're meant to be on a school trip, so don't come back until about 10-ish, okay?"

I nodded, "I promise."

"Good. I love you two." He said, giving us each a quick kiss on the forehead. "And you too, kid." He said quietly, giving Dipper one too. He took down a blanket that was hanging from behind the front door, and we wrapped it around Dipper, to keep him warm. He sighed, "Keep him safe, now go, run!" He said, urging us to get away before closing the door before Ford came up the elevator, and then rushing back inside.

We looked back after he shut the door, and then both rushed off, running as fast as we could, until we reached Paz's house. Her parents didn't live with her anymore, and she mostly lived with us now, because she had finally given up of living under their tyrannical rule, and had finally given her stupid parents a piece of her mind. And so they ditched her, leaving her with only a few servants to check in on her a few times a day, because they were heartless. They were heartless, selfish bitc-

Anyway, we got to her house quite quickly, and then we stopped, trying to catch our breath. I took out a key from my pocket, and unlocked the door, letting Paz carry Dipper inside. I locked the door again, and then followed her upstairs, into one of the guest rooms. The walls were a nice cream colour, but there was a set of fairy lights hanging from the ceiling, washing the room over with a calming blue glow.

She laid him down on the bed, and pointed to a small chest of drawers in the corner. "Go and grab something from there, there should be a few sets of PJs in there, if I remember rightly."

I nodded, and went over to the chest of drawers, opening each drawer to see if there was anything inside, but I couldn't find anything, they were all empty. "There's nothing here. Not a single sock." I said, offering a small smile.

She giggled a bit, then smiled back, "Why do you have to be so...- ugh, whatever. Well go and grab something from my room then."

I nodded, and ran off to find something for my brother. I rummaged through her drawers, and eventually found something that was boy-ish enough for him to wear, I guessed. It was a red-and-green tartan nightie, I've never seen her wear that before, wow, and a pair of matching pyjama bottoms. I brought it back to the room, and showed them too her.

"Jeez, they're old. I haven't worn them in a long time. Anyway, it doesn't matter, give them here."

I giggled then handed them to her. She stared at me.

"What?" I said curiously.

"Don't just stand there, I'm going to need some help you know."

"Oh, ok, sorry."

"Doesn't matter, just come on."

I nodded, then walked over to the bed, and helped her get him changed. Once we were done, we tucked him into the covers to let him sleep. I watched him, starting to worry that he wouldn't wake up. Pazzie noticed, "Hey, he'll be fine, Mabes, I promise. He'll wake up soon. Just let him rest for now." She said quietly, coming over to put an arm around my shoulder.

"You promise?" I said, looking up.

"I promise. Now, come here." She hugged me, and I hugged her back, letting a few tears drop onto her top. She rubbed my back, comforting me, and we stayed like that for a while, just hugging. After a while, I started to get hungry, and my stomach growled loudly, interrupting the silence. "Hungry?" Paz asked.

I nodded, "Yeah, a bit."

"Come on, let's go get something, okay?"

I hesitated, not wanting to leave Dipper up here alone, but Paz smiled, and hugged me again.

"Hey, he'll be fine, I told you. Now come on, it won't take long, and besides, you haven't been eating very well recently, I'm sure Dipper wouldn't want you to get ill, would he?"

I shook my head, no, he wouldn't, he always hated seeing me ill.

"So come on then, let's go."

"...Alright." I said, still somewhat hesitant, but Pacifica tugged on my sweater, and she led me downstairs, and into the kitchen.

"So, what do you want? Anything?"

"I don't know, anything." I replied, barely paying attention as I sat down at the table, resting my head on my arms. I heard Paz open the fridge, and she grabbed a plate from the cupboard. She walked over to the table, and set the plate down. She walked off again, to go and get something else, and returned a few minutes later, holding a glass filled with an orange-y liquid, and a mug. She set them down on the table, and pushed the glass over to my side, starting to sip whatever was in her mug. "What is it?" I asked, watching the tiny little gas bubbles float around in the liquid.

"An energy drink."

"Why would I need that?"

"Hmm, I guess I just thought you needed a bit of energy, that's all."

"Hmm, okay. What have you got then?"

"Just coffee."

"Oh, ok."

"Have you seen what I brought you yet?"

I looked at the plate, and my eyes lit up, "Pizza..."

She chuckled, "Yeah, I thought you needed something to cheer you up. Go ahead."

I smiled, "Thanks Paz."

"No problem, now come on, eat up."

I nodded, and took a slice of pizza, happily eating it. She took a slice too, and we continued to talk for a while, in a comfortable silence, until we were full. We shoved the rest of the pizza back into the fridge, and then walked back upstairs again, to Dipper's room, with my drink in my hand, Pacifica having finished hers already, when we were back downstairs earlier.

When we entered the room, I was surprised to see that Dipper was still asleep. I sat down on the end of the bed, but I noticed that he looked kinda... troubled. Maybe he was having a nightmare? I walked over to the head of the bed, and gently shook him, to wake him up. I heard him let out a whine, and he opened his eyes, slowly looking up at me. "Hey, DipDop." I said softly.

"Where... is this place?" He said quietly, looking around a bit.

"Paz's house, we're at Paz's house. You're safe here, don't worry."

He nodded. "Okay..."

"Hey, Dipper?"

"Oh... sis?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you... Can you not call me that anymore?"

"Call you what? 'DipDop'?" I asked, with a frown.

"No, 'Dipper'."

I gasped, "Why not? We've always called you that, ever since we were little!"

"I know, I know, but... that's not me anymore." He said, looking down.

"But of course it is! You're my brother and you're still him and-"

"Mabel! Just listen to me, please! I'm not Dipper anymore, okay?!" He shouted, his face turned red, and ears pinned back to his head.

"Okay, we'll listen, I understand." Paz said, before I could respond. I went to open my mouth, but before I could argue, but I felt Paz shove me hard in the back, making me shut up, and I immediately closed it again. "So... what should we call you? 'Mason'?" She asked.

"No, not that either. My name... it's Alkaid now, yeah?"

"Yeah, okay, Alkaid." She said, with a small smile. She sat down next to me, and held onto his hands. "It's good to have you back, this new house has a ghost that needs capturing, and there's only one person for the job." She joked.

Dip- I mean, Alkaid, stared at her blankly, and looked confused. "That was a joke." She clarified, but he still seemed confused.

"What? I don't understand."

"It doesn't matter." She told him with a sigh, "I'm just glad to have you back."

"Me too." He said, with a small smile.

Alkaid's POV

"Me too." I lied, trying to sound convincing. I really didn't want to be here, I was too worried that someone else might find me, or that, worse, Bill would try and go after the girls in order to get to me. I couldn't let that happen. But... at least I hadn't seen him since... since after everything with Emily.

"Y-Y'know... M-Maybe you... Maybe you should... Should go and get some... Should go and get some sleee..." I pretended to fall asleep mid-sentence, and let my head fall to the side, to make it look believable.

Pacifica sighed, "He's asleep again. I guess he must be tired, we still don't know what he went through, out there on his own. I guess we should just leave him to rest though, come on Mabel." I heard her say. I heard Mabel sigh too, and I opened one eyelid just enough to be able to see Pacifica nearly having to drag Mabel out of the room.

I waited until they had left, then got up, and walked around the room a bit, stretching my legs and tail. I needed to think. How on earth was I going to get out of here? And where the hell would I go? I didn't know, but I would have to think of something before someone discovered I was here.

After a while, I ended sitting at the window sill, looking outside at the stars that had started to appear in the sky. Wow, I guess time passed even quicker than before now, huh. I sighed, and just watched them twinkle, and float by, it kinda reminded me of the fire back at Emily's place with how beautiful, and entrancing it was. It was so-

Wait! My head shot up, I had heard a noise, it sounded like a muffled scream. I got down off the window sill, and ran out of the door, trying to find my way downstairs. 'They could be hurt! What if someone found me?! Quick, I have to help them!' Is all I could think. I quickly found my way downstairs, and ran to where the noise was coming from, which, from what I could tell, was a living room of some sort. I poked my head around the door, and then sighed in relief.

It was okay, it was fine, no-one was hurt. I felt a bit irritated, but at the same time, I was just glad that it was just that. They were just watching a movie, just a movie, just that, so I disappeared back behind the door, so that they wouldn't notice me there.

I had decided to go back to the room they had left me in, when I saw another room that peaked my interest. I walked towards the door, and I could hear a crackling sound; the air around the door felt warm too, really warm. It was almost like it was calling to me.

'Alkaid... Alkaid...'

I was unsure of whether I should go in there or not, but then decided that it was just too interesting not to investigate, so I opened the door as quietly as I could, and entered, closing the door silently behind me as I did.

Once I was in there, I gasped, and I nearly died of amazement. In the room, were two of those really bigfire things again, the ones I really liked to look at, and be around. I giggled a bit, and then wandered over to them, the light reflecting in my eyes, drawing me in closer. It felt like someone was pulling me in, with an invisible rope.

'Go on, kid, do you like it? I made it especially for you.'

I kneeled in front of the fire, barely noticing the voice in my head, as I stared at it, feeling almost hypnotised, mesmerised by it. I started to feel warm too, so warm and so very relaxed...

I sighed happily, acting as if I had been drugged, and finally noticed that some of the flames were a beautiful, dazzling blue cerulean colour, instead of their normal fiery orange. It just fascinated me even more, and I stuck my hand out to touch them, but it didn't hurt, it just felt really nice, like I had just drunk two cups of Em's warm hot chocolate again. I smiled, and decided to lay down in front of the fire again, like I always liked to do, and soon fell into a light slumber...

My peaceful rest was abruptly interrupted by a scream. My ears perked up, but I quickly told myself that the girls must just be watching another movie again, and relaxed again. But then came another, and another, and another, until eventually, I had had enough, and I stood up, wanting to go and see what was causing them to make so much noise.

I was about to go and open the door, when I heard their screams suddenly get cut short. First Pacifica's, then Mabel's. Wait, that didn't sound normal, it sounded like something had made them stop, like they had been hit mid-sentence. I gulped, and stood silently behind the door.

Not long after, I heard the sound of footsteps, walking out of the living room they were in, and coming closer to this room. I heard the person knock on each door, and open it up, coming back out when they obviously didn't see anything that interested them, and then trying the next door along, trying to look for something. The person tried that for a few more minutes, until eventually, they came to my door, this room was the last one in the corridor.

The person, and for some reason I could just tell that they were a man, knocked on my door, and he tried to open it, but quickly found that he couldn't, because I had locked it a few seconds ago. I dived behind the door, so that hopefully, if he somehow managed to open it, he might not see me... hopefully. But I relaxed a bit, knowing that the lock should hold him off for a few-

Suddenly, the door burst open, the lock itself flying right off of the door, and ping-ing off onto one of the walls. The man threw open the door, nearly hitting me with it in the process, and I tried to keep my breathing steady, and quiet. "I know you're in here, Mason!"

Ford! 'Fuck, I can't let him see me, who knows what he might do if he finds me here?!' I thought. I tried to stay quiet, but the sound of his footsteps moving around the room, and then drawing closer, and closer, to me, terrified me.

Soon, I could see him standing only a few feet away from me, and I panicked, I didn't know what to do! I growled, without even thinking, and my tail started going crazy, hitting the floor and then the wall, back and forth, back and forth, repeatedly, making it obvious where I was.

"Ah! So there you are!" He said, turning to me with a huge smirk on his face. "It looks like the little demon decided to give himself up!"

I growled louder, and bared my not-so-sharp-anymore teeth at him, as if it was a threat.

"You don't scare me, so I'd advise you stop that now, before you get yourself into more trouble."

I ignored him, and kept on growling, trying to wriggle further into the corner I was in. "Leave me al-" I was cut off by him suddenly taking out a little blue-and-yellow cloth bag from his pocket, and holding it close to my face, waving it in the air and showing it to me. I had no idea what it was, but it had this weird smell which made me want it so much.

I jumped up, and 'pounced' on him, scrabbling to get it, but he just laughed, holding it higher in the air, clearly unfazed by my wild attempts to grab it. I growled again, and he just threw it to the floor with a laugh. I followed straight after it, crashing to the floor, and held the little bag up to my nose. It smelt like the most amazing thing I had ever experienced, and I covered my mouth and nose with the the cloth, inhaling it in.

Whilst I was distracted with the scent bag, I didn't notice Ford holding something up against my head, a gun. But it didn't look normal, it had weird words and symbols drawn on it. I felt it touch the back of my head, and I tried to look up, but couldn't. I was still holding the bag over my face.

I just couldn't stop myself from doing it, it smelt just irresistible to me. I had to hold onto it, I had to keep it on my face, I had to smell it again and again and again, it was intoxicating. I finally managed to turn around and face him, using every last bit of effort that I had, and managed to stutter out a question. "Wh-what d-did you d-do to m-me?"

"Do? I did nothing to you. It's rather what I gave to you, that's affecting you so much. What you are holding is a very powerful drug, that only affects demons, mixed with a bit of chloroform. It's irresistible to you, it messes with your mind, making you unable to control yourself, but it does nothing to me, or any other human. The effects last a few hours."

"B-but why? Why m-me? I'm... Me... But... not a demon..." I said, in betweens sniffs.

"Dipper wasn't, but you are! You've got so many demon parts, you practically are one, you stupid creature! And that's another thing! That drug? It also makes you submissive, which is good for me. I want to run some tests on you, then when I'm done, I'll throw you out, and Cipher can have you back as a dead body, Dipper's spirit will be free."

I whimpered, and nearly started to cry as he said that. Did he still really want to kill me?! His own nephew?!

"Let's test it out, why don't you tell me your name."

I felt my mouth start to open to speak, but I couldn't let him do that me! I stuffed the bag into my mouth, so that I couldn't speak, but I swallowed something sticky from the bag in the process.

"Did you know it's even stronger when swallowed? I guess not. Now tell me your name, demon!"

"A-A-A-"

"A-A-A!" He mocked, "Are you trying to recite the alphabet? TELL ME YOUR NAME, YOU DAMN DEMON!" He roughly grabbed my neck, and shoved his hand into my mouth forcing the bag down my throat, making me gag, and cough, for a few seconds, before, somehow, I caught my breath, and wasn't choking anymore.

I thought about it, Ihad to escape, I didn't want to be here anymore. I tried to stand up and run, but after the second step, I was pushed back by an invisible force, knocking me to the ground, and leaving me writhing in pain on the floor for a few seconds as I felt my whole body burn and tingle all over.

Once it was all over, I looked down ar the floor. He had drawn Bill's summoning circle on the floor with chalk somehow, without me noticing. It must've been when I was hiding behind the door a minute ago.

"You can't leave the circle, it's impossible. You have his mark on you now, that's why it works. And don't pretend to be in pain, it disgusts me, you pitiful creature! Now, tell me your name!" He spat, pointing at me.

"A-Alkaid Cipher!" I shouted, then quickly covered my mouth with my hands, shocked at how he was able to control me like that. I was also a little shocked that I had said 'Alkaid' to him, and not 'Dipper', and I feared that that would anger him, but it was what felt natural to me now, what felt right, I suppose.

"'Alkaid?' Well, you must've had at least twenty times the normal dose now, that's why you'rebeing so compliant. And now, now I know, that you, you are definitely no longer my nephew. You, Alkaid Cipher, are a monster, a creature, a thing." I whimpered, and hissed to myself, and then he bent down closer to me, examining my face for a second,

"Don't. Move." He said. I felt my body suddenly freeze up, and he pulled out a needle, waving it in front of my face. I gulped, and watched as he moved it closer towards my neck, but all I could do was hiss, growl, and whimper, pathetically, nothing else, and that obviously didn't deter him from whatever he was planning to do. I suddenly felt a sharp prick in my neck, and I whimpered, but it wasn't that bad, and it didn't really hurt after a second. But I would be wrong, so wrong.

A few seconds later, my body tensed up, and my arms, legs, and eyes, began to twitch... Then followed the pain... The unimaginable, searing, agonising pain. I screamed, as if I was being stabbed alive, but I couldn't move, not one bit. Ford laughed at my pitiful pleas for help, and just watched me suffer. Soon, though, I heard him suddenly go silent, and his face paled.

The pain instantly stopped, and I found that I could move a little more. I looked down, panting after all the pain, and saw what he was looking at.

Everything that Bill had done to me before, the claws, the sharp teeth, everything else, had returned. I looked just like I had looked before, if not, worse. Ford stared at me, shocked, then I saw a blue flash behind him, and I yelped, frightened.

I saw Bill appear, looking extremely serious. "Pine Tree, come here, now." He said quickly, not missing a single beat.

I hesitated, this was his fault, wasn't it? He left me here, he never came to check on me, he left me to die here! No, I wouldn't go to him. And... no, I couldn't anyway! The circle was keeping me in!

"Pine Tree, come here now!" He said, even more serious. He used his telekinesis to smudge the chalk lines, so that I could escape.

I suddenly felt the need to listen to him, to want to be comforted, to go back to him, to get away from Ford. I didn't care right now, at least he wouldn't try to kill me, he just protected me, even if it was just so he could keep me alive to torture me over and over again, but even so, he was... nice, to me...

Wait, no! It's the drugs! They're changing my thoughts! Wait! No! I can't-

I suddenly felt all resistance be drained from me, and I crawled over to him, starting to hiccup, as if I was going to start crying again. I stood up, holding onto him for dear life, frightened of Ford, who was just staring at me, shocked.

Bill picked me up, trying so hard to hide the twisted grin on his face, and I held onto him, sitting at the side of his hip now, and starting to cry properly. He patted my back, with mock sympathy "There, there, shh, Alkaid... People aren't very nice, are they?" He said, looking at Ford. "Don't worry, we won't ever be coming back here again, not ever." He whispered to me.

I heard him sigh, and then used his powers on me to make me fall into a deep sleep. I still let out a few sniffles now and then though. He pet my head, and I 'purred', subconsciously grabbing onto his hair in my sleep, and accidentally digging my sharp nails into his skin, but either he didn't seem to mind, or he didn't seem to notice.

"When we get home, I'll have to fix you again, won't I? But this time, I'll make sure that the effects are much more more permanent." He muttered, half to to me and half to himself, even though I was still fast asleep.

"Cipher!" Ford shouted, getting his attention.

Bill smiled eerily, and looked up at Ford, "Huh, you've really messed up now, haven't you, Fordsy? Drugging Llama and Shooting Star? Wow, that's low, even for you, Sixer. Well, I guess I should say thank you. You've done the hard part for me. That submissive drug you used? Doesn't work on all demons, you should've done your research. You're just lucky that Pine Tree is one of them. But, now that he can't resist anythung, my job should be so much easier! And all because of how dumb you are! Well, I guess I really must be going now, Fordsy! Have fun telling everyone what you did, I'm sure Fez will be very interested to know why his great-niece and her girlfriend are lying on the floor right nos, probably going to die!"

"Die?! Cipher, what did you-"

"Hush, Fordsy, you'd better go and help them, hadn't you? Now run along, while I take Alkaid here, back home with me, where he belongs. And don't expect him to want to come back, he wouldn't want to, not after everything you've done to him. Thanks to you, the kid's probably traumatised now, how wonderful." He said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "I guess I'll have that to deal with now, before I can do anything with him. But really now, if you do still want have a great-niece and her girlfriend left by the end of this, then I'd suggest you go and help them. Hmm, I'd say, right abooouuuttt... now!"

The sounds of screams erupted from the room where the girls had been drugged, and Ford grumbled, cursing at Bill, before rushing out of the room to help them, "I'M COMING! HOLD ON, GIRLS! HOLD ON!" He shouted, hoping that whatever Bill had done to them could be reversed.

I whimpered in my sleep, hearing the screams hurt my ears, and Bill laughed again, petting my head, and making me sleep deeper with another spell. "Come then, Alkiad, I have so much planned for you, so much! And by the end of it, you're going to be the happiest you've ever been, and you won't have so much as a drop of reality left in you! Oh, how fun that'll be! But first thing, dehumanising you, so, let's go home, pet!" He snapped his fingers, and started laughing hysterically, his obnoxious laughter echoing around the whole house.

We soon disappeared in a flash of blue flames, the world around us blurring as were teleported back. As I left this place, and ended up in another, one I might dare to call 'home', I knew I would never be the same again...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [A/N: Ooh, a bit of a cliffhanger! Hope you enjoyed it! Can you guess what's going to happen to poor little Alkaid? Maybe? Maybe not? As always, if you have any questions just ask, and I'll answer them. Alright, anyway, but for now, try to stay safe!! Bill says to remember to wash your hands to the tune of 'We'll meet again', twice (that's like 20 seconds right?!) lol! 💙🖤. So... have a nice day, have golden nightmares, and... byyyyyeeee!!!! 💛🖤]
> 
> 8191 words,
> 
> ~ Star 🌠


	4. Goodbye, Dipper Pines.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alkaid's been rescued... right? Surely Bill wants to help him now... right? Surely he'd going to keep him safe... right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [A/N: Y'all might need to get the tissues out for this one, because we're taking a trip to sweater town, cape town aaaayyyynnndddd hat town for this one, if you get the reference ;). This chapter is shorter than the last, because I need your guys' amazing ideas to help me! The next chapter, at least for the most part, is going to be a more of a filler chapter, but I'll explain more about that at the end. Before we start, just a warning, some of the chapter is "quite" graphic, so there's no point putting individual warnings up, just know that it can get a bit gorey/ just a bit... ew, gross, at some parts (🤣). But, for now though, enjoy, and good luck, 'cos it's sad at some points!]

When the blue flames disappeared, we were back at 'home' and I was sat on a chair, not tied up, but, I was still asleep. We were in a dark room, with only a few yellowing lamps to provide a bit of light, the room was one I'd never seen before.

Bill stood, slowly circling around me, and muttering something to himself. He held a small, golden needle, that was attached to a small, thin thread. He chuckled, and grabbed something from a counter nearby.

"Time to wake up, Alkaid!" He said, quickly yanking my head back, and roughly pulling at each little curl with with each of his fingers.

My eyes flew open, and I screamed, only for him to laugh hysterically, "If you don't shut up, I'll only make this worse for you, but don't worry, you won't feel any of this after." The sinister tone to his voice made me shudder, and I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to argue.

"Good, now that you've shut up, just before I begin, I need to make sure that you can't free yourself, so go on, amuse me. Try to escape." He said, as if it was an order, and gesturing for me to stand up and free myself. I just stared at him, shocked. Wait, he wanted me to escape? Was this a trick? Was this why I wasn't tied up?

I sighed, and tried to think about it. On the one hand, I did want to escape, I did. Maybe... maybe I could run? Maybe be free? Maybe find Emily again, and help her? Maybe I could be... free.. But... on the other hand, would... would I ever be free? Even if I did run, even if I did escape, even if I did find Emily again... would- would I ever really be free from Bill? No, no, I wouldn't... As much as I hated him, after everything that he did to me, I still needed him to protect me, to look after me, to feed me, to keep me safe from other. Without him, I probably wouldn't survive very long on my own, as I had very clearly demonstrated a few minutes before. I had just ended up getting my beloved sister hurt, and nearly getting myself killed. If Bill hadn't appeared before and taken me away at that moment... I don't know what I would've done against Ford, but it probably wouldn't have ended well, for me...

I heard Bill's voice leak into my head. "-ello? Earth to Alkaid?" He said, bringing me out of my thoughts, and waving his hands in front of my face to get my attention. I snapped my head up, I noticed that I had started to drool slightly, onto my lap, and I just looked up, in defeat. "Well? Aren't you going to escape?"

I shook my head, "No, I- I'm not going."

I saw his smirk grow wider, "What? Say that again? I didn't quite hear you." He bent down closer to me, and cupped his ear with his hand, pretending to listen closer.

"I said... I'm not going. Me... I...Want to.... stay here... please." I whispered, looking down.

Bill laughed hysterically, and then pulled away, "Wow, that drug really has done a number on you, hasn't it, Pine Tree?"

I sighed, maybe it was the drugs making me think all this...

"Well, maybe it is, maybe it isn't," He said, reading my thoughts, "But either way, it just makes it easier for me. Now, hold still." He snapped his fingers, and I felt cold blue chains wrap around my body, like metal snakes. I didn't react, I just let it happen, only whimpering slightly when their grip tightened around me. "Good pet." Bill teased, scratching under my chin, suddenly making me purr, on my own, without control, even though I shook my head, desperately trying to snap myself out of it, but it was like an instinct I couldn't ignore.

He chuckled evilly, and then started scratching behind my ears, making me feel really, really good. I sighed, and found myself reaching out to nuzzle his hand, like a fucking cat, and immediately purred again, liking the feeling. I could hear him laughing at me, elated at my embarrassment, but I couldn't stop, I just couldn't stop. He carried on, and I was starting to feel relaxed, until I heard a 'snip', and then suddenly felt an unimaginable amount of pain in one of my ears, making me scream out in pain.

"Good! So you can still feel then! And by the way, scream like that again, and you won't have a voice box left to scream with!"

He yanked my head up again, and showed me what he had in his hand, it made me feel sick. There, staring back at me, was the tip of my own ear, covered in fresh, warm blood. I tried to scream, but when I did, no noise came out. He pretended to frown, then grabbed my ear again, making it pulse with pain, and covered my eyes with his other hand. I held my breath, waiting for something, but after a while, I felt... I felt nothing. He didn't do anything. What was he doing? Was he waiting for something?

I heard a drawer open behind me, and then there was silence again for a while. Then I felt Bill start to mess around with my hair, almost as if he was trying to find something. I felt him stop, as if he'd found whatever it was he was looking for. "Ah! There we go, that'll do nicely!" I heard him say to himself. I wondered what he was talking about...

Without warning, I felt a knife get dragged into my scalp, feeling the blade carve circles into my skin. I struggled, not trying to escape, but trying to wriggle just out of reaction.

"Stop moving." Bill said, his voice low, and serious. I stopped struggling, biting my lip instead, and making it bleed. I yelped, and Bill stopped to check what I was doing. "Oh, it's nothing, just a cut." He said, nonchalantly waving it off with his hand, and going back to his work.

I felt a cold sting near the top of my head, and I froze completely, afraid to move. I think he was sewing something onto my head, because I could feel the skin get pulled up and down, and the brush of his fingers against my scalp, making me yelp out in pain every time. Slowly... slowly, I could begin to feel him touching something, something new, something weird. It definitely wasn't part of me, but it was attached to my nerves, sp I could feel with it. Though, to be honest, I couldn't feel very much with it, only a few things, like little tingling sensations up and down my head.

Once he was finished with one part, I felt him repeat the process on the other side of my head, and then he stepped back, admiring his work. "There, that looks perfect!" He said, clapping his hands together.

I groaned, and looked up at him. He was covered in blood, it was all over him, his face, his top, his hands, everything. He saw me staring at him, and crouched down in front of me. He held out his hand to me (which was somehow covered in tons of fresh blood), in front of my face, and waited for me to do something. Wait, was he waiting for me? I stared at him, confused.

"Lick." He said, coldly. Wait, did he want me to licky my own blood? That's disgusting, that's... that's... I opened my mouth, without control, and then hesitated, did I really want to do this? As soon as I smelt the blood, I very quickly answered my own question: yes, yes I did. I stuck my tongue out, as if begging him to come closer so that I could taste it, to which he obeyed, and I started to lap up all the blood, earning a mock-praise from him, "Yes, that's it, go on, good boy, keep going, good creature, so stupid, so lost, so defenseless."

I quickly finished up, licking the rest off of my mouth, and then whined when there was no more. "You really have no idea what's going on, do you? Oh, this is pitiful!" He said, but I could tell there was no remorse in his voice. He just found this funny. All of this. He found it funny. Not that I could even begin to think about that, I was too caught up in my own little world to notice.

"Now, we're done done yet. You need to take this!" He summoned something in his hands, but I didn't know what it was. It was small, and it had two different colours on it, one side blood red, the other side sky blue.

"Wh-what is it?" I asked, wondering if I should be afraid of it.

He noticed my worried expression, and laughed, "It's just a pill, Pine Tree. Don't look so scared!" He walked closer to me, pulling my lips open as if he was examining my teeth. "Now, open wide!"

I opened my mouth, obeying, and he placed the pill on my tongue. "Close." He ordered. I closed my mouth. "Swallow." I tried to swallow but the bitter taste made me end up choking slightly. Bill laughed hysterically at me. "Whoops! Should've made you drink something with it! I would've, if you could still drink properly, but I guess you can't, so tough luck!"

I ignored his mockery, until eventually re-caught my breath, but I felt the world start to get a blurry, and I struggled to hold my head up for long. I quickly just gave up, sighing, and letting my head hang down in front me, also making me lean forward on the chair. Thankfully, the chains kept me from falling forward too much, otherwise I would've slammed face-first into the hard stone floor.

I felt my eyes begin to close, and as I drifted to sleep, just as deep as I had earlier, I felt my whole body begin to tingle. Bill smirked, and rubbed his hands together, "Now, now, we can let the fun begin..."

Bill's POV

I stood back, and watched my work begin to take place. I had sewn these antler-things onto him (and though they just looked like stubs, or horns for now, they would soon grow out), just for fun really, he wouldn't really need them. In fact, they would just be an annoyance for him. They would hopefully make him super sensitive to everything, but only once they had healed, and grown out a little more, which, looking at them now, wouldn't take very long.

I took his hand, holding it up to my face, and saw tiny little hairs begin to grow. They were a dark, milky brown colour, like his hair, and they soon covered the back of his hand. I could see them starting to grow on his legs and arms too, and especially at the back of his head too, behind his ears. There was a good reason for this though, you know: the more animal-like he felt, the more animal-like he would become.

After a few minutes, the pill had done it's work, and though the hair-turned-fur on his arms, legs, and hands, wasn't really that thick, it was noticeable. It made him look even less human, and I loved it. Now, I just had to wait for the effects of the narcotics to wear off. I waited a while, hoping he would just wake up naturally, then got bored and just decided to wake him up myself. "Hey, Pine Tree? Wake up." I said, shaking him, but I got no response. "Pine Tree, wake up!" I shouted, hoping he would wake up now, but still getting no response. Then I realised, it was probably because that would have been the second dose of sleep studf he would've been given today, one from the thing that Fordsy used on him, and one from me a couple of minutes ago. 

Oh well, time to resort to more extreme measures then. I smirked, and grabbed his tail, yanking hard on it, "ALKAID! WAKE UP NOW!" I yelled, thinking that he's got to wake up now. But, to my surprise, he barely even reacted, and just opened his eyes slowly, one by one, and looked up at me, blank and emotionless, before closing them again, and falling back into a light sleep. "ARE YOU STUPID OR SOMETHING?! OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES!" I screamed, yanking on his newly-attached stubs. Ah, that did the trick. His eyes flew open, and he whimpered, crying out in pain as I pulled at the nerves. I let go, and smiled. "Well, now that you've finally decided to join us, how are you feeling?"

No reply, he just lolled his head about from side to side, as if he was dead.

"Absolutely fine, then! Good, I knew you would be. But, now you've woken up, you're just in time for the main event. Head up, please." He didn't move his head, so I did it for him, pushing his neck back against the chair. I heard a small snap, probably from a bone in his neck, but I didn't worry too much about it, it could be fixed later, I was busy right now. I held his head steady, until it remained still, not moving from its place, and then placed my hands on either side of his head. I took a deep breath, and then focused all my energy on him, focusing straight on his soul. 

He yanked his head back even further, nearly falling back from the chair in pain, and his screams started up immediately, making me want to cover my ears, but I had a job to do, and I couldn't stop now. As time grew on, his screams only got louder and louder, and more frantic, as he desperately tried to flail around and kick me away from him. But it was no use, as the chains held him firmly to the floor, and only tightened as he struggled more, pinning his arms down behind his back. He cried out countless desperate pleas for help, along with many obscenities aimed towards me, begging for mercy, begging for death, begging for his family. I think, I think, I heard him scream out for "God", and even at one point call out for Satan. God, was the pain really that bad? That the kid would prefer Satan, over me? Huh. Either that, or maybe he thought I was Satan. I chuckled at the thought, either way, it was a nice compliment. Soon, his screams turned to just straight out asking me to kill him on the spot, or have mercy on him. As his life flashed before his eyes, each memory, thought and feeling being painfully ripped from his head, I think he just wanted to give up. The worst was when the last thing he had held onto, the memories of his family, and friends, were crushed and destroyed, and he screamed more than ever then, randomly shouting out their names as they were one by one, plucked from his head. But, the one he screamed for most, was Shooting Star, his twin, his dear, dear, sister. Somehow, somewhere, I had a feeling that she would be able to feel all of this... But, even if she did somehow try to come after me to try and find him, she would never be able to have her brother back anyway...

Once I was done with him, " Mason 'Dipper' Pines", would no longer exist...

"JESUS! JESUS! PLEASE! STOP! YYYAAAAAAGGGHHH! NO! MABEL! PLEASE! PLEASE STOP! MOM! DAD! PLEASE! PLEASE! MERCY! MERCY! GRUNKLE! BBBIIIILLL! STANFORD! STANLEY! MCGUCKET, FIDDLEFORD! BBBIILLL!! MMAABBEELL, NNOO! PACIFICA! CANDY! GRENDA! GIDEON! WENDY! ROBBIE! TAMBRY! MABEL! MABEL! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! MABEL! I LOVE YOU!

PLEASE! PLEASE! I BBBEEEGGG YYYOOOUUU! KILL ME! PLEASE! END MY LIFE! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! KILL ME NOW! PLEASE!"

Admittedly, his desperate screams and cries were turning into one of the most pitiful things I had ever heard, even for me, even for a demon. I felt a slight pang of guilt at what I was doing, should I really be doing this? I wondered, but quickly brushed it away, stupid human brain, stupid human body, making me feel things! I let my smirk return, and then finished up with my work.

As I withdrew my hands, his screams ended... and with a single, lone cry, as his head fell back, he whispered out his last word through his tears, terrified, letting himself go.

"Goodb-bye..."

And with that, Dipper Pines, was no more...

*2 hours later...*

2 hours later, the kid woke up. He didn't move, didn't speak, didn't wince, he just woke up. He didn't even open his eyes, I just couldn't sense his dreams anymore, and that's how I knew he was awake. There was nothing left of him anymore. Just a body, and just a soul. I had removed practically everything from him. His knowledge of humanity, his true identity, his speech, his feelings, his will, and his ability to think anything more than a few sentences? All. Gone. 

They were wiped from his mind, as if they never existed in the first place. Of course, he would still be able to think, and feel... well, feel some things (like danger, unease, fear, etc; I left them, but only because they would make him more animal-like anyway when paired with his new instincts), but his thoughts would be simple, and easy to understand, nothing too hard or too complex for his simple little mind. He would act on impulse, rather than intelligence, and he knew that he belonged to me, so he would be forced to obey me. I wondered if he would really even be able to tell what was going on, or if he would permanently be dozy, and docile.

I snapped myself out of my thoughts, and went over to check on him. His eyes were open, and he was just staring at the ground, blankly.

"Alkaid?" I asked, not sure if he would would respond or not, or if he would even try to speak. He didn't react, so I lifted his chin up with my finger, and forced him to look at me. Still no reaction? "Alkaid?" I asked again. He lifted his head up on his own, and stared at me, but did nothing else.

I suddenly had an idea, I wondered if he actually did remember himself, somewhere deep in his mind. Maybe that would stir him, if he wasn't reacting to "Alkaid". Maybe, perhaps, perhaps it would. "Dipper Pines." I said, thinking that he wouldn't do anything. But, I was wrong.

He suddenly growled, and snapped at my hand, drawing blood with the bite. "LET GO OF ME, YOU STUPID CREATURE!" I screamed, slapping him hard around the face, and he let go. I withdrew my hand back, and looked at the damage. He had left a nasty bite mark there, and my hand was dripping with blood, but it disappeared almost instantly as it healed. I let out a quick laugh as the sensation of pain quickly turned into a nice, tingling feeling instead. I made sure the chains were tightened, and then stepped closer to Alkaid, pushing his chin up so that he couldn't get to me if he tried to attack me again.

"You're a nasty little thing, aren't you?" I let go of him, and he immediately started lapping up all the blood that was around his mouth from the bite. While it may have freaked a normal person out, this was good to me, I wanted this, I wanted him to be wild, and crazy, and feared.

"Good boy." I praised, patting him on the head. He stuck his tongue out, starting to pant, and I saw him begin to dart his eyes around the room, until eventually, his gaze settled on my hand again, the one he had bit. And... was he drooling?

Hmm, maybe he's hungry? I thought. I decided to slowly unraveled his chains, until I got down to the last loop. I wanted to make sure he wouldn't attack me again. "Don't, attack me." I warned, lowering my voice a bit, before finally getting rid of the last chain, making it disappear once I was finished. I stood back, waiting to see if he did anything, and to my surprise, he actually did. He shakily stood up, and attempted to walk over to me, but he lost his balance, and started to fall. I let him topple to the ground, not really caring if he got hurt or not, but then, I thought about it, and sighed, I guess I needed to make sure he trusted me.

But, from what he had just shown, for some reason, the spell I had used on him must've been messed up somehow, probably because of all his screaming and protesting during it, because he shouldn't have attacked me in the first place. Never. Not ever. Though, as long as I made him trust me, he shouldn't do it again.

Trying to forget about it, I walked over to him, and helped him to stand up. He held onto me, gripping my arms in a vice-like grip, and digging his claws into my skin, not that I really felt it though. He tried to walk, but he couldn't, it was like his centre of balance had changed, and walking was now too hard for him. He slowly inched towards the floor, and settled on just crawling around instead. Meh, I could just work on his walking later, he didn't really need it right now. But, what he probably did need right now, however, was food. "Hey, Alkaid?" I called, expecting him to look up.

He looked up at me, and sat back on his legs, kneeling before me. Suddenly, his expression changed, and he looked up at me with 'sad' eyes, like he wanted something.

"Hmm? What is it, Alkaid? What do you want?" When I looked down at him, I could see that he was starting to drool, his tongue hanging out his mouth like a dog, and spit beginning to pool onto the floor in a small puddle.

I 'smiled', and bent down to him, petting his head. I was a bit surprised when he started rubbing his head against my hand, like a cat desperate for attention, but it was amusing nonetheless. And at least it proved that he was definitely no longer sane, or human. I pulled my hand away, and stood back up again, walking forward a few steps. "Wait here, and don't move." I said, about to snap my fingers, but I stopped when I heard him try to follow, his claws scratching against the floor as he ran after me. "I said, stay, you idiot!" I quickly snapped my fingers, and disappeared, leaving him in the room on his own.

Ten minutes later, as I was about I felt a tug on my soul, meaning I was being summoned. I smiled, this would the perfect way to test out how Alkaid would react to seeing other humans. I snapped my fingers, bringing my pet to side, and we appeared in front of the summoners. Another cult, it looked like.

There were about five of them, not many, so it wouldn't be as fun to trick them, but it was still worth seeing the shocked reaction on their faces, to whatever I decided to do with them. I noticed that they were all girls, the youngest one probably being about 19 years old, and the oldest one probably being about 25. They were also all dressed in black drapes, with hoods covering their faces. The youngest one spoke up first. "Bill Cipher."

I smiled eerily at her, but she seemed unfazed by it. I had expected her to call me 'Lord', like all of the other stupid cults in this dimension, but she didn't, and neither did she kneel before me. Huh, what a brave little mortal, I thought, with a laugh.

"And Dipper Pines too, along with him." I stopped laughing immediately. Wait, she knew who he was?! How?! She's only a mortal, it's not possible! The only people who would be able to recognise him like this, were the people he knew well before, and this girl had certainly never met him, and neither had anyone else seen him since I took him back from Sixer, which was about a day ago (as time never really seemed to be a thing whenever I was around, or at least, it seemed to go faster). But, back to the question, how did she know his name? I saw 'Dipper' about to run to attack her, but I quickly stopped him.

"Stay." I warned, and he sat back, still hissing aggressively at the girl. I turned to the group again,"You know of his name, how?" 

"Do not be surprised, we have heard of the boy before, it was only rumoured around a few of us, but now I see that this was true. But introductions aside, we have a deal for you."

"And that would be...?" I said, gesturing to the space around me with my hands, already pissed off of at the girl and this so-called 'cult' for a number of things.

"We want power, magic, for each of us, and infinite knowledge."

I sighed, and rolled my eyes. "Seems like too far much for a few mortals to ask for, but, what do you have in return?"

The girl didn't reply, but just smirked. She walked off to the side for a second, and kicked something. It sounded like a cage. Light suddenly flooded the room, and I could see what she was offering now. A large cage, filled with at least 40 people, seemingly all somewhat drugged, or at least, subdued, was off to one side of the room, and next to it, in a separate, bigger cage, was a pale young woman, with dark pink hair, a scratched-up face and a nasty temper, who, unlike the others, was very much awake, and was banging on the cage to be let out. Why would she be in a separate cage, and not in the one with everyone else?

"We offer to you these people, they are worthless, and are no longer needed." The girl said, pointing to the first cage.

"And the one in the cage?"

"Discarded. A low-level demon. She is no longer needed either. We will give you these people, and the demon, in exchange for power." I was impressed, for an ignorant meatsack, she spoke with almost no emotion, and by the looks of it, was completely cold, and heartless. But, I was annoyed, those types of people irritated me. They thought they were better than everyone one else, better than me, thinking they could make a perfect deal, without anything going wrong. They thought they knew it all. And they were also no fun to mess around with. I decided I just wanted to get it over and done with, which would probably be good for Alkaid too, because even though I was holding firmly onto his collar, if this body wasn't so strong, my arm would have been ripped off a thousand times already. And as funny as that would be to watch, I needed to get on with the deal before I got fed up of talking to these brats.

"Fine, so each of you want your own magic, is that correct?"

The girl nodded her head, "Correct. So, do we have a deal, Cipher?" She said, extending her hand. I could hear the venom in her voice as she spoke, and the little brat obviously thought that she was in control of the situation, when she was in fact, not.

"Deal." I said, shaking her hand, and watching the blue flames run up our arms, before they burned into nothingness.

The girl looked at me confused, wondering why nothing was happening, and why her 'power' didn't appear immediately, but I could see that she was trying to make her face seem neutral. "Cipher, where is my- m- my- my- Agh! What have you- What have you done?!"

The girl clutched her head, as billions and trillions of bits of knowledge streamed straight into her head, and by one, the other girls around her started to suffer from the same fate. The knowledge was far too much for their mortal minds to comprehend, as well I knew, and their brains were soon turned into a fleshy mass, only leaving behind the bodies of the five young cult members on the floor.

I chuckled, 'Idiots', I thought, looking down to see Alkaid staring hungrily at the bodies on the floor. I smiled evilly, and gave him a slight nod, to let him know he could go ahead. He ran off, with his tongue flailing around in the air. Within only a few minutes, he had chewed up every bone, torn off every bit of flesh, and eaten every squishy organ, until nothing was left. He sat, ravenously licking the blood off of the floor until it was all gone, and then moved over to the cage with the people in it, starting to whine and bang on the metal wire. He was obviously still hungry, but I wanted to take him back now. "Later, Alkaid. Come on, we're going home now."

More whining.

"Pine Tree, not now!" I said, irritated.

He glared at me, and then decided to take matters into his own hands. He started chewing on the wires, and they snapped instantly, leaving enough of a gap for him to tear through with his claws. Maybe I should've filed his teeth down a little.

He climbed through the gap, and proceeded to mangle and maul every- single- person, in a matter of minutes, until no-one was left. He left it so clean, eating up every little bit that he could get, so much so, that you wouldn't even have been able to tell what had happened in there. He crawled out of the cage, and then tried to do the same to that demon's cage, but I grabbed him back, yanking him by his collar.

"No, I said no, Alkaid!" I scolded, hoping my tone of voice would deter him from doing anything else, which, it did. He whimpered, staring longingly at the girl, and sat by my feet. "Good boy." I praised, petting his head. I needed to try to 'mould' him, to tell him what was right, and what was wrong, but by my rules. I would have to reward him when he listened, and punish him when he did bad, a bit like taming a pet. Correction, it was, taming a pet.

"Come on then." I snapped my fingers, and we were surrounded by light blue flames, leaving the demon in the cage, but not forgetting about her. Once the flames died down, we were in Pine Tree's 'room', back at the house. When I opened my eyes, I nearly fainted. What. The. FUCK... had he done in here? The walls of the room were so scratched up, that I could see the plaster that had been used to cover them, and the floorboards were all ripped up, so dust was flying everywhere in the room. Perhaps the least worrying though, was the fact that the window had been smashed, with the glass lying in little pieces on the floor. I turned to him, in both anger, and shock, "Did you do this?"

He looked up at me, blankly, but didn't answer.

"TELL ME, DID YOU DO THIS, Alkaid?!" I screamed, knowing that he would listen, and he nodded his head slowly. I drew my hand back, and smacked him across the face, leaving a large red mark on his cheek. He immediately laid down, resting his head on his arms, with his legs still bent behind him. I think he felt guilty.

"Good, but you are never to do that again, understand?" I warned, kicking him in the side. He whimpered, but didn't respond. I needed to teach him to respond though, so I yanked him up by his hair, pulling him up to my face, but, I didn't realise that I must've accidentally touched the little horn things now growing on his head. He yelped out in pain, and growled, before accidentally scratching my face with his blade-like claws, and running off into the hallway. "ALKAID!" I called, but he didn't come back.

I growled in frustration, then ran off to find the little demon, trying to calm myself down at the same time. Thankfully for me, that wasn't too hard, as he had ran straight into my room, and , to my surprise, he wasn't doing anything wrong, in fact, he was just staring around the room, wondering what the different objects were.

Ah... obviously, I thought to myself, watching him from the doorway, as he settled down on the carpet, laying in front of the fireplace, and happily watching the fire as it cracked and popped, sending little embers flying r everywhere. I didn't know what was making this kid so attracted to fire recently, but for some reason, he was completely entranced by it.

"Whatcha doing there, kid? Watching the fire?"

"F... f... f..." I think he was trying to speak, but he couldn't say more than one syllable at a time, or at least, it was far too much effort for his poor little mind to understand. He looked up at me, trying harder. "F...f...f-f...f..."

"Fire." I said again.

"F-i... F-i-...fi... fi, fi! Fi, fi, fi!" He exclaimed happily, his ears pinned back to his head, and his tail wagging, as if he had said the whole word, which he obviously hadn't, but his effort was still there. It was more than I had expected from him anyway.

"'Fi', heh, whatever." I said, laughing, and rolling my eyes. I could see that it hurt him, but I didn't mind. He went back to the, "fi" ,anyway, and it only took about three seconds for him to completely forget about everything that had just happened. It was quite funny, watching how his little mind worked, whizzing around so much, trying to keep up, and comprehend everything, but in reality being as slow as anything, only focusing on one thing for a few seconds, before switching to another, and forgetting the thing that he had just done.

I sighed, and stood up, leaving him to watch the fire, but he crawled over to me as soon as he noticed that I wasn't there anymore, and stared blankly up at my face. "Good, you always stay by my side like this, got it? And next time, you're going listen to what I say when I tell you to, aren't?"

He nodded his head, and did the weird 'laying down' thing again, with his head resting on his arms by my feet. I took that, as a 'yes'. I thought about it, y'know, maybe training him wouldn't be so bad, especially not if he was so easily manipulated like this. A few pets and he would instantly be submissive, just like that. Yeah, you know what, maybe I was right, maybe it wouldn't...

Gag, cough, gag. I looked down at Alkaid, to see him start to cough and splutter everywhere. "Alkaid?" I said, crouching down and tapping my hand on his back, trying to get his attention. He turned his head to the side, to look at me, looking up, and when he did, I could see that he was shaking, and quivering, spit dribbling from his mouth as he breathed in and out, slowly and shakily. He reached out to me, and grabbed onto me, as if he was trying to hug me. Whatever was happening to him, he didn't like, and he was afraid, even I could tell that. "Alkaid, what are you-"

I was cut off by yet another coughing fit, as his shaking got three times worse, but this time, it didn't stop, and his coughing and spluttering went on for quite a long time, before I actually started to question whether he was getting any air like that.

I pushed him off of me, and his coughing seemed to come in short, single bursts, instead. He sat back on his legs, before laying down on his front, and pushing his top- half up of the floor, seemingly in pain. There was another loud gag, and he spat something out onto the floor.

It looked like hair, human, fucking, hair. Eeewww. I backed up, floating in the air a little, and watched what happened next. More stuff came up, mostly hair, bits of bone, and random bits of nail too, but there were other little bits and pieces. I realised that for some reason, he must not have been able to digest them, maybe because his body was still healing from the spell. Another idea was that maybe it was because he had wolfed down his meal so quickly earlier, and because he had eaten too much. But either way, it still wasn't very pleasant to look at.

Once he had stopped coughing, I thought that it would be over and done, but nope, there was still more to come. I looked at him, and he looked back up at me, tears on his eyes, before the niagara falls of blood, came rushing up through his lungs. Blood poured onto the floor, and I wondered where the hell it all came from, or how in the devil he could hold that much liquid inside of him before. But, it was only when I looked at the liquid, that I realised, this wasn't just other people's blood, this was his own blood, his own, human, blood. He was throwing up the last of his humanity, essentially. What a way to go! I cried out laughing, nearly toppling to the ground a few times because of so much laughter, and he continued to get rid of the last of everything in his stomach, until there was no more left in him.

He yelped out in fear, and started look down, crying pitifully at the sea of blood, gore, and bodily fluids, that he was practically wading in. He looked up at me, managing to cry out my name as he trembled.

"B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Bill... B-B-Bill... B-B-Bill...! B-Bill!"

I snapped my fingers, making the whole mess disappear, and changing him into new clothes, which, to be honest, he really needed. I gave him a black jumper with darker lines running vertically down it, a little yellow bow tie, and some black shorts, that tapered around his knees. There was no point giving him socks, or shoes, because a) his claws would just rip through them, and b) he was so rough at times that any kind of shoes would just get torn apart anyway.

He looked down, still crying, and fiddled with his little bow tie, confused at what to do with it. He quickly got bored, his crying taking over again, and he crawled over to me, pulling me down from the air, and jumping onto me. I staggered back, in shock, and held onto him so that he wouldn't fall off and hurt himself again, the idiot.

I mentally screamed, wanting nothing than to just shout at him to shut up crying, and to kick him across the room, but I told myself that I had to restrain myself, that I had to stop myself from hitting him, purely just because I didn't want to scare him off again, because he haaad to trust me by the end of this. I had repeated this in my head a thousand times already, and I was bored of having to put up with all his "pathetic...errr ..ness", but, I guess, I would just have to suck it up and deal with it. Who made him like this, anyway? I blame them. I'd like to give them a piece of my mind.

Alkaid tightened his claws into my back, making me wince, and I noticed that he was still sniffling and crying, whimpering occasionally. I sighed, suck it Bill, suck it up, do you want the kid to trust you or not, and my pulled my pet's head closer to my chest, hoping he would calm down. "Shh, Alkaid, shh. Calm down. I will protect you, my pet." If he was just the slightest bit intelligent, he would've heard the boredom, and sarcasm practically dripping from my voice, like a fucking waterfall, but, he wasn't, however, and so, that seemed to settle him a bit more. But, after a while, he was still fidgety, and panicked, and, deciding that I really, really, wasn't cut out for this whole "comforting" thing, I just resorted to using magic instead. I tapped his back, and put a low-level spell on him, which meant it would take effect slowly, but work for longer. His eyes started to glow blue a little, and he soon yawned, and he drifted off into a light sleep...

I sighed, hopefully he wouldn't be so... "fragile", I guess, in the future. Maybe, just maybe, with time, he would toughen up, so to speak...

*10 months later*

"Alkaid!"

My loyal pet raced into the room, on all fours, with his ears perked up, and his tail wagging. He sat down by my side, and laid down, resting with his head on my feet, like a puppy would. That meant that he was being submissive, and it was his way of showing that he was going to listen to me. I rewarded him with a quick pat on the head, and he seemed quite satisfied with that, smiling up at me, and sighing happily.

I've been training him based on a reward-based system, which has seemed to work well enough. When he was good, he was pet, given 'snacks', or got to play, and when he didn't listen to me, or did something which he knew he shouldn't (but I should mention that I didn't punish him for everything that he did wrong, mostly because it wasn't exactly his "fault": y'see, Pine Tree wasn't very... "bright", or "intelligent", and so he got often got himself into "trouble", by accident, like that one time where he accidentally brought a shelf crashing down on his head all because he wanted to sit on top of it; the kid was just point-blank stupid at times, because of how much of his memory had been wiped, so it wasn't really his fault sometimes), he was hit, ignored, or tortured, depending on which punishment he deserved the most.

Now, you might think that the torture would be the worst, because of the pain it caused him. But no, it turned out, ignoring him was also pretty harsh, too. You see, I had trained him to be loyal to me, and to always want to be by my side (he was quite good at defending me now, if ever any deals went awry), and he had also turned out to be quite the little attention-seeker. Who would've thought?

But, anyway, for that reason, ignoring him was the worst punishment he could get, and he knew that he had done wrong when I ignored him, and he always sulked over it, even after I stopped ignoring him.

However, he was actually pretty good, so I didn't have to do it often. Since the first time, he's only messed up his room twice, but the second time he did it, I really gave him a good telling-off, and he's never done it since, so I think he's learnt his lesson. Another thing we've worked on, is his walking. He can walk a few steps by himself, albeit shaky, and he can even manage a very short run, but, he still just prefers to crawl around, so I just let him. Besides, there's no need to force him to walk around if he never goes outside, so I didn't see the point in it, it was really only just something I did when I got bored.

So, all in all, he was loyal to me, and did as I asked, which is what I wanted.

On the downside though, I could no longer just randomly decide to punish him, because, unlike how he used to be, his mind now was very simple, and I had to "dumb everything down" for him, so that he could understand what I meant. Rewards meant that what he was doing was good, and that he should repeat it, and punishments meant that what he was doing was bad, and that he shouldn't do that thing again. If I started randomly punishing him, he wouldn't understand why, and it would probably confuse him too much, undoing all the hard work I'd spent on trying to teach him how I wanted him to be. So, I had to just hold myself back just a little, settling instead on just messing with a few "normal" meatsacks instead, to try and entertain myself. I hadn't allowed Alkaid to go outside this whole time though (apart from when we were summoned), so he would stay inside whilst I was out, usually sitting by the fire, asleep, by the time I came back. I didn't really know what he did during the time when I was out, but as long as he didn't wreck the house again, I had no reason to care. It was probably something stupid, like staring at the tv anyway, knowing him.

Looking down, I brushed away my thoughts, and saw that said Pine Tree, was now drooling all over my feet, staring up at me, in a daydream. "Alkaid, snap out of it!" I said, snapping my fingers in front of his face, and moving my feet away. He blinked, and then closed his mouth again, looking slightly guilty, and whining a bit. "S'fiiinnne." I said, rolling my eyes, and dragging out the words, "Just don't do it again."

His ears shot up again, and he wagged his tail, "Y-Yeh, B-B!" He said, trying his best to pronounce the words, but failing miserably. He didn't seem to care though, and wrapped his arms around my leg, and nuzzled it. Oh, no, ew, no, Alkaid, stoopp! Why is he doing this again?! 

"Alkaid, stop!" I shouted, raising my voice a bit. He let go, and went back to sulking. I sighed. When I got rid of his humanity, I didn't realise how animal-like he would actually become. When he was around me, and he knew that I was in a good mood, he was like a cat, in that he liked to laze around a lot, and he liked getting attention, but, when he was around other humans... well, he was like a rabies-infested dog, completely uncontrollable, that was something I had been trying to work on. I couldn't have him killing people before I could even make a deal with them, so we had "settled" on using a collar and leash for him, which he wore whenever we were out. He always tugged and pulled on it though, I don't think he liked it very much. But, he never said anything about it, not that he could anyway, so I decided that just having to drag him along on a leash, would be better than having to drag him along with a muzzle and chains, so yes, we settled for that. And anyways, it was better to have a grumpy, pissed off Pine Tree, than a hungry, psychopathic, Pine Tree, who chased after every goddamn human that he saw, especially not when I was the one who would have to deal with him after. But, back to the point, even if he did have complaints, he couldn't exactly voice them, and so he was forced to wear the collar and leash every time we went out.

Well, at least, he couldn't voice them... very well. His speech, once I had discovered how messed up it truly was now, I decided should just be kept to a few basic words, as he couldn't say more than a few syllables anyway. I could teach him a few more later if I ever needed to. By now, he had his own way of "speaking", usually saying the first one or two parts of the word, for he knew most of the alphabet now (well, sort of), and I had gotten good at just guessing what he was trying to say, and what the full word was. Thinking about it, his speech, once I got used to it, was actually pretty easy to understand. He would say things like, "Y" or "Yeh", for "yes" , things like "N", or "N-oh" for "no", but, the three words he said best were, "Need", "Want", and "Hungry". How ironic. Another one he could say, was, "Bill." Well, I lie, he could say Bill, but it was mostly still kinda too hard for him, so he mostly just stuck to saying, "B", instead. This thing he said the most though, was probably "Fi", for "fire", or "fireplace". I was still confused why, but the kid still seemed to be obsessed with anything related to fire, and that fireplace, and on one occasion, he nearly burned the house down one day, when he found a matchstick, and decided to play with it on the bed. He didn't really mean it, he was just being curious, but I still had to tell him off. His punishment was, that he was starved, and ignored for a week. I don't think he liked it very much. In fact, after I let him out of his room, on the next summoning call we were taken to, he actually ran off, and by the time he came back an hour later, he had probably killed, and eaten... hmm, give or take, I'd say, at least a hundred people? I didn't punish him for it though, he was starving, and he needed to eat, so I let him carry on just this one time, and... to be hinset, I don't know how many people were killed that night. It was probably a lot though, probably a good few thou-

Buuuttt, anyway, back to the point, he was able to speak now, even if it was only a few syllables, or letters.

And anyway, if there was ever a time where I couldn't understand him, however, I could always just read his mind. Though, even that was quite weird, because his thoughts were always in a mix of broken English, and pictures, so his thoughts were almost just as cryptic as his 'words'. Regardless, though, I still understood him, and I think he understood me, or at least, he understood my tone of voice, and he knee to always try to respond to me when I asked him something, either with speech, or through his actions.

Breaking out of my thoughts, I heard Alkaid whimper again, great, so he must still be sulking. But, there was something a weird about his whimper, you know. It kinda sounded the whimpers that he'd make when he was in pain, but I brushed it off, thinking it was nothing, or that I had just imagined it. "Alkaid, stop being a crybaby, come on." I said, rolling my eyes.

He sat up, but he wouldn't look at me. "Alkaid, stop ignoring me!" He yelped, and then growled quietly, looking down at the ground. Wait, he growled, at me?! Why was the kid being so defiant today? I looked down a bit closer at him, and I noticed that he looked really twitchy too, like something was wrong... "Hey, Alkaid, are you-"

He cut me off with a hiss, nearly biting my leg, but stopping himself. I gasped, and then slapped him around the side of the head, which, he well and truly deserved, in my opinion. But, to my complete and utter shock, he hissed at me, and even dared to- he even dared to scratch my leg as well, ripping a hole into the fabric of my outfit.

Right, that was it, he had really done it this time, this time, I won't hold back, this time I'm gonna- "ALKAID!" He cut me off mid-sentence, standing up (how the hell could he even stand on his own?!), pushed me backwards into the fireplace, and ran out of the room (standing up was hard to believe, but running too now?!), not even looking behind him once. I screamed, feeling the fire burn me, and start to melt my skin, and I snapped my fingers, teleporting myself to the middle of the room, suddenly standing up. The sudden teleportation made me feel dizzy, and I tried to run out of the door, but as soon as I did, I accidentally took a breath, and my lungs filled with thick, black ash, from the fireplace. I doubled over in pain, coughing my lungs out. "Alkaid! ALKAID!" I screamed. He should be coming back! Why wasn't he- Why wasn't he helping me?! It's ingrained in his mind, he literally cannot disobey me that way! He literally has to help me! What has happened to him?! "ALKAID! ALKAID! PLEASE! ALKAID! AALLLKKKAAIIIDD!" I called, begging out from him to come.

But he never did.

I felt the hot ash start to burn my lungs, and I still tried to move, but I couldn't, my whole body on fire. I felt myself suddenly start to get sleepy, wanting to close my eyes, and I knew then, that this was getting dangerous now, but there was nothing that I could do to stop it, not without Alkaid. "A-Alkai-.... A-Alkai... A-Alkaid... A- Aaahhhh..." I breathed out, and fell to the floor, lying, just barely conscious, on the ground, as smoke filled more of the room, and the fire began to trail closer and closer to me, only growing bigger, and more dangerous, as it burned it's way through the carpet. 'Damn carpet... It's getting sooo warm in here...' I thought, giggling as hypoxia set into my brain, and I passed out, no longer able to tell the danger I was in.

But, to make it worse, outside the door, a certain pet was waiting, scratching and whining at the door, expecting his master to open it, and let him in, unaware of the danger he had just caused, just wanting to be pet, and forgiven. Little did he know, that if he did not find a way to get into the room, and wake me up, then he would be trapped in the fire too, frightened, alone, his master asleep, and not waking up, and not there to help him, or reassure him, he would be doomed...

And even if he managed to escape, even if he did manage to get far, far away from the house, if I 'died', the moment that I did, my soul would be ripped right back into the mind scape, and that mark, that mark on his back, my mark, would rip him right through with me, technically killing him, at least in this plane of reality, and then, that, to the rest of the world, that would, truly, truly, be the end, of both Dipper Pines, and, Alkaid Cipher, dead, and never to return...

I could only hope, that somehow, some way, he could fix his mess, or find who ever was truly behind it...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Heeeyyy! So, hope you enjoyed the chapter, *kawaii sweet girl voice* I worked hard on it ooh-woo UWU. It ended up being longer than the last, when I was originally going to leave this at around 5000 words, but inspiration struck aaannnd I just went with it. Also, sort of a spoiler, but don't worry, no-one's gonna die in the next chapter! Anyway, about what I was talking about in the beginning. I do have ideas for how this story is going to come to an end (sequel? Maaayyybbbee, if you want one) eventually, but, I'm going to need ideas for (a) filler chapter(s)! Which means, I need you lovely guys' input! I basically just need to know about anything you want either of the characters to do (maybe even some of the other characters too, like the Pines, Paz, Gid, Wendy, Stan, Ford, Emily, etc.). It could be as simple as saying "maybe they go out at blah blah blah, but *blah blah blah* happens", or, "what would happen if Alkaid found *this* and decided to do *something* with it?" You know, anything like that. It can be wacky, or crazy, or silly, just go ahead and ask/ say what you want. The ideas can be something that would only take up a small part of the chapter (like a little "adventure" they have or something), they could be something that is mentioned, played on in the next chapter, but is ultimately left unsolved, or unfinished, to be solved, or "finished", in future chapter, they could even be a separate storyline/ subplot entirely (like how I did the Mabcifica plotline). For this to work, I'll need either a really good, subplot, or enough smaller ideas to work off of and build a chapter on. But anyways, enough said, I hope you're all okay, and I can't wait to hear your ideas and suggestions! After all, the quicker I get a few, the quicker I can write the next chapter. But, for now (side note: why do I keep accidentally writing 'now', instead of 'know' XD 🤷♀️), remember, my little nightmares (if you have a better name, just suggest it XD, I think anything's better than that, maybe I'll call you Pinecones... actually, no, wait, I low-key love the other one, take it as a compliment, people, take it as a compliment 😆, just do it), buy gold, have sweet nightmares, and see you next time! Bye! (Also, did you know, the things leave at the end are completely random, yes, you heard that right... "com-plete-ly", "ran-dom"...)]
> 
> 9352 words (always excluding A/N's btw, and 10,030 words including, well... including ",the next thing", I ain't no cheat 😎),
> 
> ~ Star
> 
> ALKAID CIPHER
> 
> Ttmcy tc bifj, jmg yikucx hmud yih msitsmoulmi,  
> Lxwtvr'd xedhq nmua, flt hrab lr jm qlgfmtxg?  
> Elsj Kxwlvr zllqyhqch, as khp ynm kd yih vrte "xesm",  
> Kny tduk niwv ib wzmm 'ippc htc pmw fcqcz eeoerez khfltu fiutce?
> 
> Jxs pwi ic yix, lub ex vpt oeedd yf iqnvpty,  
> See hro sqnya hv qlcs, lub bdv qh zs uegyil re ewavyi.  
> Ayn wphm Guxsc zs nravjhpo, uhv sejynl kdt wlu gfnebot,  
> Zhnt hoi jucbevgdt, wg dmcl sor vdswzt aebe tds brkn?
> 
> Bwprxs lbe cqqcdtspznr, knl rkf edbrus hslt qdxmg oirl,  
> Met vrv ypd dmcl rot pxqv, wc alzs xotisgqzxjec bldtthekmak?


	5. Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alkaid is lost and confused and without his Master; a sweet young woman with some kind of recent trauma tries to help him and keep him safe; and it seems that someone is definitely following him, but he can't work it out. How much worse can this get for our poor little child?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Partially written for InsaneDemons66 (on Wattpad), happy birthday 🎉. 
> 
> And yes, Alkaid now refers to Bill as "Master", but it's purely because Bill is literally his owner, and also, if he calls Bill "Bill" all the time, it would be him calling Bill by his name, which Bill doesn't want as that's a human thing (well, and other things too but you get what I mean hopefully- also that was the most confusing thing I've ever written, sorry). Also, the person you're going to meet in the chapter, is in fact, partially "blind" (sort of but not really)- you need to know that for it to make sense (their sight is mostly fine, but their vision comes and goes and clears and blurs- so they can't always make out things around them; they weren't always like that though...). Finally, as usual, you know there's gonna be a few gross-ish moments in here, so just a teensy little warning about that! But anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter!] 

**3rd Person POV (3rd Person Omniscient the entire way throughout)**

Alkaid grabbed at the door handle, whining to be let in, but yelped when he felt the hot metal scald his skin, leaving a bright red mark on his hands. He pulled away from it, hissing, and sat back on his legs. His confused little mind tried to piece together what was happening...

_He was stuck outside... but he didn't like that!_

_He wanted his Master- Bill! Bill! Bill! But... his Master hadn't come (had he gotten in trouble? Was he being ignored again?! What had he done?)..._

_But he_ _always comes (even if he's in trouble!)... and he isn't now..._

_The door won't open... and his Master is inside..._

_He remembered sitting by his owner... and then it all went blank..._

_But now he_ _wasn't responding... someone hurt him!_

Alkaid growled to himself at the thought, then backed up towards the wall behind him, readying himself to jump. He sprang his legs off of the skirting board, putting his hands out in front of him. The boy crashed straight through the door, and landed right on his stomach with a whimper, waiting a few seconds before trying to get back up again.

Alkaid shakily pushed himself back onto all fours, and looked around the room. He yelped, seeing his Master lying unconscious on the floor. The boy knew that he needed to help him, but he didn't know how; the fire had already completely surrounded the demon, and there was no chance of him waking up anytime soon...

He decided to panic instead, and tried to shout for his Master, but it just ended up with him getting a lungful of smoke, and ash. He coughed and spluttered, trying to get enough air, but it was too late now, the room was completely filled with the stuff.

After a few moments, the child suddenly felt his limbs go weak, and he started to feel oddly calmer, like none of this was happening. He slumped onto the ground, as the warm feeling started to take over his body, and cloud his mind. It felt so nice... so warm... perhaps... maybe he could just close his eyes for a bit... perhaps he could just...

Alkaid's eyes drifted shut, and he slipped away into unconsciousness, joining his Master in a calm, but dreamless sleep.

Though even in his sleep, he could hear someone calling his name in the distance...

_"Alkaid! Alkaid! Alkaid!"_ The voice said, getting closer and closer with each second. The voice sounded familiar, comforting even. It was strange; even though he was asleep it was like he was still in the room, still able to hear and feel everything taht was going on around him...

He could especially feel the heat, the heat of the fire, singing his hair and starting to reach his skin. He twitched, feeling a dull pain from the flames, as they started to lick up at his arms.

All of a sudden though, that he was gone, and he could feel someone reaching their arms around him, picking him up and carrying him away from the room. His eyes flee open as soon realised that he was being taken away from Bill. "N-No! N-No! No! B-Bill! Bill!" He cried, flailing his arms about frantically in the air, but the person's grip on him was too strong, and they weren't want to let go.

"Alkaid, calm down! Please!" The person said, trying to hold onto him.

Alkaid growled and hissed, but it got him nowhere. He felt a cold hand touch his forehead, and he instantly calmed down, feeling a new wave of sleepiness wash over him. He stopped struggling, letting his arms and legs dangle down uselessly below him, and letting his eyes start to close once again. By the time he reached outside, Alkaid was already fast asleep.

The person who was carrying him laid him down on the ground, pushing his long hair out of his face. They watched him twitch and flinch, and laid a hand on his head to hush him. Leaning down, they whispered something in his ear, their long hair tickling his face as they gently pushed a lock of _his_ back behind his own ear.

He heard the person's voice enter his mind, but it sounded dreamy to him, almost as if they were barely there at all. _"Sleep child, you just sleep now... It'll all be alright... I... I have a friend, Alka, she'll keep you safe until I can get you back,_ _and_ _I will, I promise. Trust her though, Alkaid, you must trust her... but not the other humans, they won't... they won't understand... I'll get you back child, I will, but for now... Sleep well, sweetie..."_

Alkaid groaned in his sleep, feeling a dull burning sensation spread throughout his body. He opened his eyes just in time to see a bright white flash, causing him to hiss in pain as the light burned his overly-sensitive retinas. He screwed his eyes shut tight, and when he reopened them a few seconds later, he was no longer in the same place he was before...

Alkaid quickly sat up, and looked around himself... _he didn't recognise this place_. The only thing he recognised was the tangled mess of trees dotted all around him, and even though he "knew" what it was, it only registered in his mind as, _'forest'_ , which wasn't so useful when he didn't know what to do with that information, or how to get out of said 'forest'

The boy anxiously darted his eyes around, settling back onto all fours, starting to back up defensively just in case anything was watching him (Bill had taught him well- at least when it came to defending himself if he was ever alone, not that Alkaid ever _considered_ the thought of ever being alone meaning that now he actually _was_ in his own, all that training was useless), ending up just behind a row of bushes at a roadside.

Something didn't feel right; he couldn't do this on his own- not without Bill. Alkaid's breathing started to quicken, the whole _world_ seemed to be watching him, even though he knew he was alone.

And it wasn't just that, the bright burning sun was beginning to glare at him; he hadn't seen it properly for almost a year now, and the way it's heat was beginning to crawl over him was making him feel uncomfortable.

He laid down in a slightly shaded area, hoping to at least stay hidden until Bill could find him again.

Things passed by him occasionally- big things, small things, furry things, fluffy things, though they were all staring at him as if he was some sort of alien, or... perhaps it was because they were scared of him, but either way, Alkaid couldn't tell. But... if they _were_ scared of him, then it was true that he was just as scared of them as they were of him- so neither of the other was really a threat to each other.

Soon after, the boy became tired. He lowered his head and closed his eyes; not only was he afraid his, he also couldn't comprehend what was going on, his whirring mind unable to process what had actually happened to him- too many thoughts at once and too many ideas to process (he wasn't supposed be on his own! He wasn't supposed to have to think so much, _Bill_ did that for him! Where was Bill? He just wanted to go home now!)

He was just about to let out a small whimper, when he heard a loud noise rushing past him, making his mind whirl with panic.

_'Beeeeep! Beeeeep!_ ' Came the noise, seeming to fly by him from one side to the other.

Alkaid ducked his head, already shaking, and expecting to hear something else, but thankfully... it never came. He cautiously peeped his head over the bush, and saw that there was in fact, nothing there. Hmm... that was strange... so where had the noise come from?

Forgoing his fear of the world for just a moment, the young brunette climbed his way over the row of bushes, and crawled out onto a long, concrete stretch (which, unknown to him, was otherwise known as a _pavement_ ). He tested his hands on the ground, and decided to see where it led him (maybe back to Bill! Maybe back to Bill!). He walked (well, _crawled_ really) down the path for a while, but soon it was clear that the rough ground was too harsh on his scarred skin (even though he _did_ have slightly tougher skin than most now), scratching up his hands and rubbing away at his feet. But at least he didn't mind so much, seeing as he had developed a liking for pain in way. So, he didn't make too much fuss about it, only taking breaks every once in a while, when he absolutely _had_ to, to let his sore hands and feet heal.

After a little while longer of walking, the sky was beginning to darken and Alkaid was starting to get hungry (Bill usually got summoned right about now, seeing as most people thought that summoning a demon worked better at night for some reason- it really didn't though, that was just a myth, but either way, taht time of day would usually be when Alkaid got to eat). He crawled slowly off of the pavement and tried to cross to the other side of the road, wanting to find something to eat. He was halfway across the street, when he suddenly saw bright lights in the corner of his eyes. He turned to look at them, and yelped, as the thing quickly came closer and closer to him, too fast for him to properly react and move out of the way of.

He ducked instead, as the large thing drove past him (and right over him), leaving him shaking on the ground, frightened, but thankfully unharmed.

The offending object (an old lorry) drove onwards, only speeding up as it reached the end of the road. Whoever was driving it, hadn't even stopped to check if Alkaid had been hurt, he just carried on driving, even though he'd definitely seen the young creature on the road in front of him.

Talking of the boy, said creature had yet somehow managed to work himself out of a panic, if only because of the adrenaline rush, and had run over to the over side of the road to get to the other pavement, away from traffic. He sat down for a while to rest, quickly scouting the area for food but finding nothing, then set off again, needing to find three things: Somewhere to go, something to eat and somewhere he felt safe (he felt "safe" wherever Bill was, he really just wanted to get back to his owner!)...

After about an hour, Alkaid had wandered off into a different part of the town. There was no-one on the streets thankfully, but the streets themselves were lined with shops- some of which were abandoned, whilst others were still in business but closed for the night.

The boy walked up to each shop window, looking in awe at all the different things he could see in the shops. He wondered what they were, what they were for, why they were left out behind a window. He did this same thing to each shop he came across, until eventually, he had settled down in front of the arts and crafts shop, too fed up to go on.

He decided he liked to look at all the little shapes dangling on their strings in the windows anyway, especially the little triangles (his Master could look like them sometimes!), and besides, it occupied him for a little while, helping him to forget about everything so he wouldn't worry as much.

Alkaid soon began to yawn though, the string shapes starting to make him feel drowsy and tired. He tried to get into a comfortable position, laying his head down on his arms with his little ears poking out at the top, but it was hard, what with the cold breeze now blowing down the back of his jumper and down past his bare knees, making him shiver slightly. He was hungry too, but it wouldn't be any use trying to find anything to eat now, seeing as there were no animals around here. And to top it all off, it had just started raining, and within minutes, the only clothes Alkaid had (and of course, Bill just _had_ to have put him in the least warm clothes possible this morning- a thin jumper and a pair of shorts- which were already ripped up and dirty) were soaked through, which left him quivering on the floor able to do nothing in the bitter cold.

The shivering young boy curled up into himself, his lip trembling as he unsuccessfully tried to keep himself warm. He covered his ears and whimpered to himself, a small tear escaping the corner of his eye.

After a few long, dreary minutes, a light tapping sound suddenly started to emerge from somewhere down the street. Alkaid took no notice of it, thinking of it as just another torment of the night, just another weird sound he didn't like, and closed his eyes again, trying to fall asleep (maybe Bill would be able to find him in his dreams...). The tapping persisted though, and it seemed to be coming closer. The boy raised his head up, but he couldn't see what was making the noise. "B-e, be sh-shh..." He said out loud (he really had to try to say even _that_ much, and he had to try even _harder_ just to think of the right words), asking the noise to be quiet so he could get some _please get some sleep_. Come on noise, at least let him sleep.

But when the noise persisted, he realised it wasn't going to go away. He growled quietly to himself in annoyance. "B-b-b-be sh-shh! W-want s-l-eep. Sl-eep!" He said again louder, with a hint of aggression to his low, slightly scratchy (mostly due to how little he spoke, even before all this- even back with his Master, he mostly just growled, hissed, whimpered, or made other vague noises instead of talking (and Bill was able to work out what he wanted from that most of the time); though let it be said, he _was_ very good at saying _"f-food"_ and _"I-I want"_ \- which irritated Bill to _no end_ ) voice.

The tapping stopped soon after, and Alkaid sighed in relief (thinking his "brave" attempts to scare the troublesome noise had worked) and he closed his eyes again, trying for the umpteenth time to get some sleep. Unfortunately though he celebrated too soon. He felt something poke him gently in the side, and he yelped, backing up against the shop window. He hissed, and looked up at the offending object- it was some sort of stick. He followed the stick upwards with his eyes, until he quickly found himself looking at a person, a real... actual.. person... not just some stupid cultist or other summoner. 

Alkaid stared at the person, feeling the ache in his stomach start to get stronger as he slowly stalked towards them, looking like an animal waiting to catch its prey. He waited for a few short moments, before he pounced aggressively onto the figure, landing with his nails (well, _claws_ really) wide apart and digging down deep into their chest.

"Oww.. get off of me... I only want to help you..." A voice groaned, the owner of it holding a hand to their head as they fell to the ground with Alkaid on top of them.

But all they got was a low growl in response as Alkaid pressed his claws deeper into their soft skin, closing his eyes and growling lowly as the sweet scent of blood that was seeping out from underneath his nails, began to fill the air.

The human took this chance to quickly dig around for something in their pockets, only getting a precious few seconds before the creature returned his attention to her. He was about to snarl, baring his sharp, yellowed teeth at her but the person quickly brought out the object from their pocket up to his face, spraying something cold and harsh in his eyes. The boy tumbled off of the human, yowling and hissing. "O-oh! I'm sorry! I didn't want to hurt you! Really, I didn't!" The person said quickly, putting the object back down on the ground and taking in a few deep breaths to recover themselves.

Alkaid held his hands over his eyes, clenching them shut. Whatever that stupid human had sprayed him with had really stung! It burned his eyes and his skin, feeling like acid melting off each layer of his face. He tried to scratch it off and it seemingly worked, with the pain subsiding in just a few short moments.

The human next to him pushed themselves onto their knees, trying to feel around on the ground for something. They got pushed back though by something as they felt a heavy weight leaning down on their shoulders again, pushing them to the ground. They tried to sit up, but quickly recoiled away, feeling hot breath nearing their face and claws dig back into their shoulders. The person grabbed the spray canister again, clenching it tightly in their hand. "I'll use it again, I'm warning you!" They threatened (though she sounded like she didn't really want to do that.... Alkaid wondered why; Bill had always told him that humans would hate him, wouldn't like him, wouldn't help him... so why did this one seem so.... different?).

The boy hissed and backed away from the human, snarling defensively at the object. He was about to snatch it from her, when the familiar sting from a minute ago reached his eyes again and he whimpered in pain, covering his face with his small, clawed hands.

The person, raising their hands defensively as they spoke, inched a little closer to him. "Are... you okay? I didn't really want to get you in the face, but you made it hard for me to aim- I can barely see ya know. And it doesn't help when you tried to attack me. Having someone attack you like that can be quite... _jarring_ , to say the least. I've been attacked before, many times, but never quite like that. I know you probably can't understand me, or maybe you can but don't want to listen, but... does it hurt that bad?" They asked softly, the gentleness of their voice surprising him. It reminded him of someone, but he didn't know who.

He slowly removed his hands from his eyes, and looked at the person (why did he feel so... safe... to do that?). It was a girl. He couldn't tell what she looked like though, seeing as it was so dark, but she didn't really look that threatening, even considering that. He stared at her with a sort of curious frown, before his face quickly contorted into a grimace when he felt the area around his eyes start to burn _again_. The girl though, didn't seem to notice, and just sat there, still waiting for an answer from before. A few seconds later, the burning sensation dissipated just like it had before (like... like magic, yeah!), leaving only a small twinge of pain around his eyes.

Alkaid peered up at the girl, finding himself wanting to find out more about this girl. He was naturally curious, yes, which got him into a lot of trouble with Bill sometimes, but this time he was _really_ intrigued. It was his first time seeing a human 'out in the wild' too, on his own and it was a human who was just _there_ \- not one of the ones who had tried to harm him, or trick his Master, in a summons. This one was just... just _there_ , thinking about it he had no need to attack her, not really _(apart from the startingly obvious fact that she looked soooo tasty and he just wanted to rip her fresh beating heart right out of her-)._

It was slowly getting harder to ignore those thoughts, seeing as his hunger was _already_ starting to catch up on him. Usually, he was _okaayy_ around the humans he had seen before, thanks to Bill's slightly cruel training "techniques". But just in case, Bill still always kept him on a leash just to prevent any... _unwanted massacres_ , but now that he was hungry again, perhaps he _did_ have a reason to attack her- and he had no-one to hold him back, no-one to scold him, no-one to tell him not to- _'I'll_ _ **always**_ _see what you do, kid, always. Never think I don't see what you do, Alkaid, because I do. And I always can and I always will watch you- so never forget that. Next time you do this, don't think you'll be getting so lucky, this is just a...'_

Alkaid snapped out of the sudden memory, hearing his stomach growl. His head flicked up to look up at the girl, eyeing her hungrily now as his long, purple tongue dangled out of his mouth and his eyes narrowed down into little black slits.

The girl didn't seem to react though, instead focusing on the growl she heard from his stomach. She frowned, "Hungry? I can take a guess at what you want. And if it's me, please think again." She said, subconsciously gripping her spray canister in her hand a little tighter. She loosened her grip slightly once she realised what she was doing though, "But if you wait a moment, I think I can get you something you might like, because I'm guessing that sound means you're hungry? And besides, I've dealt with others like you before, it'd be no problem."

Alkaid _could've_ wondered why she was treating him so... _humanely_ , but right now he could barely get a single coherent thought in edgeways. He just wanted to just kill her on the spot, to devour her juicy flesh and weak bones, to savour the sweet taste of her warm, bloodied beating heart, but his thoughts turned back to Bill. Even though he wasn't there, he knew he would be punished if Bill found out that he had got rid of this human without his permission, so he lay his head on the ground in defeat, groaning at the pain beginning to build up on his stomach.

The girl, still waiting for an answer, frowned, getting impatient. "Come on kid, aren't you hungry?" She asked again.

Alkaid cocked his head slightly, peering up at the girl through half-lidded eyes, almost as if just looking at her would send him reeling at the sight of her sweet, succulent- _'N-no m-me! H-he s-sees, I-I b-be a-am b-bad! N-n-no...'_ He groaned, gripping his head with his claws, clenching his open jaw shut, fighting down the urge to kill her on the spot.

"Gosh kid, I don't bite." The girl said upon hearing his discomfort, sounding slightly softer than before. "Look, I've told ya, I can get something for you, you've just gotta trust me."

Alkaid whined, digging his claws into his head, and to the girl, that was just enough evidence to suggest that, yes, the boy was indeed probably _pitifully_ hungry and it might be worth helping him out a bit, seeing as he seemed so... hesitant to attack her again.

The girl smiled slightly, "Alright, how about you come with me, but first- oh wait, hang on..." She said, beginning to fumble around on the ground for something, with a slight frown on her face as she struggled to find what it was that she was looking for. "I could've sworn I had it around here somewhere..." She muttered.

Alkaid just huffed, and buried his head in his arms- he had a headache coming on, and though the rain had stopped, the water soaking through his jumper was starting to make him shiver uncontrollably again, which didn't help how he was feeling. The truth of it was, that Alkaid just wasn't used to having to think on his own, to _be_ on his own, to be without someone to tell him what to do. To be honest, he hated it- his mind was literally working itself into exhaustion, with so many thoughts running around his head all at once, impossible for him to bear. Sometimes, once in a while, he got like this back at home, but Master had always been there just to- _snap!_ \- clear it up, clearing the thoughts away with a simple wave of his hand. But Bill wasn't there now, there was no-one to stop his aching mind, or quell his burning thoughts, or even just to chase him around the house again, yelling angrily with a cane in hand whilst he ran across the floor with a mischievous grin spreading across his scarred face. He sniffled, digging his claws so far into his scalp, that when he moved them away, he nearly tore his hair out.

Meanwhile, the girl had seemed to find what she was looking for, and she had stood up, holding onto her stick (the lost item). "Are you still there, kid?" She asked softly. "Come on, I can help you if you let me."

Alkaid was just going to ignore her, but to his surprise, he found himself walking towards her anyway, feeling a strong urge to go with her. He didn't exactly want to go, but he didn't argue with it either, too pained, too tired, too cold, too wet, to do anything about it. He begrudgingly followed her as she slowly started to walk on, the only noise breaking through the silence being the occasional tap of her stick (which helped her _not_ to trip over things) on the ground, guiding her through the streets.

About 40 long minutes, a few rests, and a one-sided conversation later, they finally reached a small house somewhere about halfway into the forest. The girl walked up to the steps to her door, and pulled out a set of keys from her pocket, fiddling with the door lock to get it open. Eventually, she managed to get inside, and Alkaid followed her in, wondering how he had got here in the first place.

The girl led him to a living room, and took her cardie off, hanging it up on the back of the door to dry. She sighed, and told Alkaid to wait.

He hissed to himself, but stayed where he was, deciding to lay down on the carpet instead of follow after the weird human.

A few minutes later, the girl returned silently with a bowl. She set it down on the floor and stepped back. Alkaid looked at the bowl, then at the girl. "I thought you were hungry. Come on, it's not a trick." She said.

He carefully inched over to the thing, and looked at what was there. A couple meats, some raw, some cooked, and as far as he could tell, they were mostly animal, but his eager eye caught sight of something that _definitely_ looked human, but he didn't question it because that, to him, was normal.

He looked around for a second, and gave it an experimental lick. As soon as the taste hit his tongue, his eyes once again narrowed into slits and his thoughts slipped as he ruthlessly tore into the food that had been given to him, tearing bits apart with his claws as if he was fighting to get it. Meanwhile, the human girl just stood there in silence, not really reacting to his brutal display of violence as he continued to wolf down everything that was there- only cringing in disgust when she could hear the bones snapping, hear the juices sloshing and practically visualise someone noisily gulping down each piece with a growl, even as she turned away with her hands to her ears, playing it a slight bit with the way she groaned and complained under her breath.

After Alkaid was sure that every last little bit of meat was gone, he mindlessly licked himself clean, getting a thrill out of the taste of taste of the blood, before collapsing to the ground, panting slightly as he felt the hungry haze begin to leave his mind, letting him return back to normal.

"I suppose you've finished now...?" The girl asked quietly, listening to the silence that followed. Alkaid shoved the empty bowl over to her, and she bent down to pick it up, taking it into the kitchen, and then washing it out, giving her own hands a good clean afterwards too. After she was done, she dried off her hands, and walked up to the doorframe, staying there for a minute, before silently settling down on the floor a few feet away from Alkaid, who was starting to shake from the cold. Although, it was more just because his clothes were still soaking from being out in the rain for so long, rather than the cool breeze that was coming in through the window.

After a while, the girl spoke up. "Hey kid. I can hear you shaking. You cold or something? C'mere, let me put this around you." She grabbed a blanket off of the sofa next to her, and threw it over to Alkaid, who at first ignored it, but soon clutched it close to him, hugging onto it as he thought about Bill again, wanting him to just appear out of nowhere and just take him back home. He didn't even know where Bill was, couldn't think about it, couldn't remember, but he knew he was getting uncomfortable staying away from him for so long.

The girl sitting near him, suddenly stood up, and motioned for him to come. He did so, but warily, looking back behind him a few times to check if anyone was there. She ran her fingers ran over a little switch on the wall and flicked it on, a little electric fire popping up, and starting to warm up the room. She smiled slightly, and sat down on the floor next to the boy, who was gazing into the flames with a look of fascination and ease in his eyes. She was silent for a while, before she finally spoke. "So... I guess I should ask you what you are then... so can you speak?"

Said boy looked up at her, and frowned slightly. Before, by some miracle, he was able to understand her, but now... now he couldn't again. The only person he could (in a way) _always_ understand, was Bill, but Bill wasn't here right now. He sighed, and laid his head down on his arms again, letting the warmth of the flames surround him as he felt his eyes begin to droop.

"No then...that's alright, I didn't think so anyway." The girl noted, muttering to herself slightly. With a small sigh, she patted the carpet next to her, "Come and sit here, it's warmer." She said quietly.

But Alkaid didn't move; he was thinking about home again. Home... he wanted to go home now. He wondered if he was being punished, if he'd done something wrong that he didn't know about, and this was his punishment for it. He closed his eyes, slowly thinking, and asked if he could come home now, if his Master could forgive him, and saying that he'd be good, he'd be good... _please_...

The girl, who noticed his heavy silence, moved closer to him, trying to comfort him. He growled lowly, but didn't stop her. Seeing that he wasn't going to push her away, she gently pulled him onto her lap, she gently stroked his hair, scratching behind his ears a few times. Alkaid leaned into her soft touch without realising, purring a little. "You are a strange thing, aren't you? I wonder what you are..." The girl muttered to herself. She settled into a peaceful silence, letting herself think about it for a while...

A few minutes later, she spoke up again, "My name's Eli by the way, just in case you didn't know. It's rare to find any creatures, _per se_ , in the town, much less near the shops, I wonder why you'd be any different." She said softly. "Then again, you seem to have somewhat more of an intelligence than the others, you can think by the looks of it. And you go through emotions too, which are linked to those thoughts I presume. It's strange, I've spent so long studying the things that most people don't see, and yet I've never seen something so... _human-like_ as you. It's weird really, you seem so like others that you could say it's uncanny, apart from the obvious differences of course. Something's bothering you though, I wonder what it is? Maybe I could've help you with it if I could see what you were thinking..." Eli muttered to herself, patting his head gently as she did. Alkaid looked up, and for the first time since he'd 'met' her, he got a good look at what she looked like.

She had porcelain white skin, with only a slight rosy-red dusting of colour on her cheeks to add some warmth to her face, and one of her eyes was a milky fuschia colour (like that of someone who was blind), with the other being a greyish-white, almost matching the colourless look of her skin. Her long white hair fell loosely around her shoulders, draping down to her hips with a few streaks of rose-gold running down to the very tips. Scanning her face again, he noticed that the eye that was pink, looked scarred and burned, almost like someone had thrown acid onto her face. Eli shifted a little, and looked away, sensing that he was looking at her. To some people, as much as they tried to hide it, she creeped them out, and they couldn't even look at her without cringing and looking away. She wondered if this creature, this _boy_ , sitting on her lap, would be scared by it too...

But to her surprise, Alkaid instead slowly reached out to touch her face and tried to feel the skin, pulling away for a second when he felt her twitch in pain, before he moved his hand to the side of her head to gently, _gently_ let his own sharp claws feel through the cascading river of soft white hair falling down her face, noticing how silky it was. He usually wouldn't be so careful with himself, in fact, hurting her would've probably amused him in some way, but a voice in the back of his mind told him that this human wasn't like the others, something told him that he probably shouldn't do that, that he should trust her... even if he had no idea why. He moved his hand up to her face again, once again focusing on the burn mark around her eye.

Eli's breath hitched in her throat, and she gently, but firmly, pulled Alkaid's hand away from her face. "Sorry, I just... just no." She said, sounding as though she was talking more to herself than him really. She absentmindedly went back to petting his hair, thinking for a while, before she noticed that he was lightly snoring on her lap. She broke out of her thoughts with a small smile, and lifted him up and laid him gently down onto the sofa, letting him curl up with his blanket, before she quietly removed his cream-white, sodden jumper and laying it out by the fire to dry.

Once she was done, she settled down onto the other end of the sofa so she could 'keep an eye' on Alkaid whilst he slept, just incase he needed her or anything. She sighed, and rested her hand on her chin, thinking about random things, before she felt her eyes start to close on their own, and she eventually fell asleep, sprawled out over her end of the sofa, half upside down over the edge of the cushions...

***12 hours later***

Eli woke up with a groan, putting her arm around the small weight that was on top of her, as she opened her eyes to see that, yes, she had been sleeping on the floor again. Welp, hello back problems! She rolled her eyes, chuckling quietly to herself, and lifted her head up a little. "That you sleeping on me, little one?" She whispered, reaching out a hand to stroke his long, matted hair- she would have to do something about that later, maybe give it a wash? Maybe.

She felt his long tail wrap around his neck, accidentally tickling her, and she giggled, covering her mouth so that she wouldn't wake him up. With a bit of an effort, she sat up, making the boy on top of her roll into her arms, and she lifted him up, putting him back on the sofa, where he immediately curled into a ball, still sleeping soundly, seeming like he _belonged_ on that sofa. He was smiling in his sleep too, with his little clawed hands bunched into fists, and the small crop of hair above his eyes flopping up and down as he breathed in and out, in total making him look like the most harmless creature ever possible.

Eli gave him a little pat on the head, before she walked into kitchen, making breakfast for the two of them. She set out the same thing as yesterday, placing it on the floor in the living room in a bowl, before she went back to the kitchen and simply made a cup of (Earl Grey of course) tea ( _precisely_ one PG Tips tea bag -she has it shipped-, 3/4 water, 1/4 milk, 8 sugars- don't question that- with one digestive to dunk; she is a _master_ in the art of art of tea-making, good luck anyone who says otherwise), and some weetabix for herself. Again, simple, but a routine at that. And a good one too.

Once she had drank her tea, dunked her biscuit and finished off her cereal, Eli made her way into the living room, and found that Alkaid was still asleep. She sighed, rolling her eyes again, and gently nudged him, telling him to wake up. "Come on swee- _kid_ , time to wake up now." She said quietly, laughing a little as said child woke up, stirring a little, and took one look at her, before falling back asleep again. "Sleepy today, are we? What's got you so tired, eh?" She mused, kneeling down on the floor beside the sofa. She moved his hair out of his eyes, playfully blowing in his face a little, seeing if _that_ would do the trick.

Alkaid opened his eyes, glaring at her (he loved sleeping, he slept _all the time_ usually, not that Bill really minded though- as long he didn't get in his Master's way, then he could - _mostly_ \- do what he liked, when he wasn't being taught something, of course; but at the same time, that doesn't mean to say he wasn't still energetic and curious about lots things, because he was, he really was, for it was that very same trait that made him wake up again), but his expression soon changed when he smelt something very strong coming from somewhere near her- _food... And oh, OH, that smells good..._

Eli tapped the bowl she had left for him, thinking that would get him up, and of course, as expected, it did.

Alkaid eyed the bowl hungrily, and looked at Eli again, before diving straight into the food, sending Eli recoiling away in an instant...

***20 minutes later***

Eli was just finishing the washing up, when a sudden thought popped into her head. "Oh wait, wasn't I was gonna go get that book today? I mean, it's the last one they had I think, but... I can't take the kid with me to get it... can I? Nah...- actually wait, fuck it." She turned towards the direction of the door, "Ty-Ty, we're going out in a minute!" She screamed through the room, not really thinking about whether he would even understand her. And yes, she had gone ahead and called him Tyrone, seeing as she didn't know his name, didn't know if he even _had_ a name- but either way, it just seemed right.

Once she was done with the washing-up, she walked out of the kitchen, grabbing something off of the back of the front door- a collar, and lead (well, chain really). If she was going to bring him with her, she at least needed to make sure that he was safe, and that he wouldn't run off, or try to attack anyone. Just in case, she was going to walk through the backstreets anyway- less trouble that way, she guessed.

She made her way back to the living room, trailing her hands along the hallway walls to guide her, and sat down on the edge of the sofa, clearing her throat to get Alkaid's attention. Once she was sure that he must be looking at her, she brought out the two things onto her lap, fiddling with the metal clasp on the chain.

Alkaid's eyes widened and he hissed at her, backing up all the way into an armchair, trying even then to get even further back.

Eli heard him hit the front of the chair, and frowned. "You okay, Tyrone? I just don't want you running off, that's all. Here, just let me put it on, I'll be gentle. Promise I won't make it too tight." She knelt down to get closer to him, brushing off his sudden growls and snarls as him just being nervous about wearing a collar. To be honest, she wasn't entirely wrong.

Every time Alkaid got taken to a summoning with Bill, he was always _forced_ to wear one, (if only to prevent a few unwanted masacres now and then) and Bill, not being the type to care about how rough he was being, always had it on so tight that it was practically _choking_ Alkaid and he knew whenever he wore it, that Bill wasn't going to let him eat, which always made him sulk. So therefore, the second that Alkaid saw Bill carrying a collar, or a leash, he would run and try to hide (which, when your owner is a _demon_ , is quite ineffective really), and Bill practically had to wrestle Alkaid to the ground to get it on him, having to use his magic to get him to _just stay still_ , because that was the _one_ thing that no amount of training had really solved. And so when Alkaid saw that the collar in Eli's hand, he immediately knew that he was _not_ going to let her put it on him, even if had been starting starting to grow somewhat more comfortable around this (particular) human.

Eli felt the hatred practically coming off of him in waves, and she took a step back, putting her hands up defensively for him to see, and then crouching down so she could be on his level. "Look, Ty-Ty, I'm not gonna hurt ya, I promise. If I was going to, I would've done so already, and I wouldn't be here having this (rather _one-sided_ ) conversation with you. Don't you trust me? Look, I said I'll be gentle, and I will- ya just gotta let me prove it to you first." She said, giving him a small smile to reassure him.

Alkaid looked at her, then down at the leash and collar that she had in her hands. He didn't know _exactly_ what she was saying, but her tone of voice made it obvious to him that she wasn't planning anything bad with him, so, he hesitantly inched over to her, lying his head down on the ground in front of her like a puppy would.

Eli (blurrily) saw him crawl over to her, and she slowly, and gently, as promised, clicked the collar around hi neck, fumbling with the buckle a little to make it looser than normal, before attaching his lead to the metal ring at the bottom of the collar. Once she was done, she gave him a small scratch behind the ears as a reassurance, but he just glared at her instead, batting her hand away with his claws.

Alkaid turned his attention to the collar. He scratched at the thing, seeing if he could get it off, but much to his irritation, he couldn't.

Eli sighed, hearing him scratch at the buckle, and stood up, gently tugging at the chain connected to Alkaid's collar.

Said boy followed to the door, but did so pitifully slowly, so that he was pulling at the leash whenever Eli tried to walk. She pulled him outside, and then stopped, looking down at him. "Alright, I get you doing like having to wear that thing at all, but it's for your own safety, and everyone else's. So, for my own _sanity's_ sake, would you _please_ stop dragging me backwards every time I try to walk? It's really not that hard- I walk, and you follow. Now come on, the less you pull, the easier this will be." She said, her tone making her sound slightly irritated, but she remained firm and calm for the most part.

Alkaid looked up at her, confused, and he just continued to sulkily crawl on behind her, _still_ irritated about the collar. Eventually, Eli got fed up of it, and decided whenever Alkaid pulled on the leash, she would yank him forward slightly (but not too hard- she didn't exactly want to hurt him, just get him to stop moping around so much), pulling the leash taut.

Half-an-hour later, as they were walking, a sudden bang chain of loud bangs sounded from a car across the road. Eli stopped for a second, laughing quietly as the apparent owner of the worn-down vehicle cursed at the thing, kicking and shoving it to get it to work. With a slight shake of her head, followed by another giggle, she began to set off again, before noticing that Alkaid wasn't following. "Hey, Ty-Ty... what's up?" She asked, her voice softening slightly.

The boy (who had no idea who 'Ty-Ty' was meant to be) growled, biting the metal chain and trying to drag the older girl backwards, which was surprisingly effective against her.

"Woah, woah, what's wrong? Stop pulling me!" Eli shouted, digging her heels into the ground and holding onto a nearby lamppost for support. Alkaid continued to drag, until she had no choice but to be pulled to the ground, scoffing her knees and chin up in the process. "Ugh..." She groaned, lifting her head up again and pushing herself quickly back up. Using a bit of strength that she didn't know she had, she grabbed onto the leash with both hands, and pulled the unruly creature back until he couldn't try to run away again. "Tyrone, stop!"

Grabbing firmly onto his collar, Eli carefully stood up, panting slightly and out of breath, before waiting until she could sense that Alkaid had calmed down. Once he had stopped hissing and growling, she let him go, putting her hands on her knees and tried to regain the last of her breath. 

The boy below her nuzzled into her leg, as if he was trying to keep as close to her as possible. With a slightly breathless laugh, she bent down and gave him a pat on the head, which he leaned into. "All that over a stupid old car, eh? You doofus..." She teased lightly, looking over in the direction of where she had originally heard the troublesome sound coming from...

After waiting for a few more minutes until she was sure that Alkaid had calmed down, Eli and the boy set off again, walking down the streets until they saw a familiar row of shops coming into view- the ones where Eli had originally found Alkaid. 

  
Fortunately, there was no-one around as it was the weekend, so, taking a quick look to make sure there really was no-one there, Eli led the slightly shaken-up creature down the street, letting him stop a few times to peer into some of the empty shop windows, filled with lots of lights and dazzling displays.

As they came to the last shop, Eli stopped, before leaning down to face Alkaid. "I just need to go get something, kid. I'll only be a minute tops, I promise." She said softly. She went to stand up, but paused for a second, thinking. "I just don't want you to run away..." She murmured to herself. Suddenly, her hand touched something on the shop front, on the bottom of the glass- a metal loop. Perfect! _Alright, so... it was meant for tying up_ _ **pets**_ _, but Tyrone was basically like a pet... right?_ Trying not to think about it too much, she carefully lopped the end of his chain through the loop, before tying it off with a clove-hitch knot (which meant that it wouldn't be so tight that he couldn't move around, but he wouldn't exactly be able to run around either) and sighing.

Alkaid experimentally tugged at the knot, seeing if he could break it, and didn't notice Eli going into the shop. "Behave!" She had shouted, before walking in.

Eli looked around at the shop- it seemed normal enough, _at first_ , but any normal resident would immediately notice that something was off... it seemed too.. _quiet_ , almost, like something was missing. And no, it wasn't because Eli could barely see without having to squint sometimes. She walked up to the counter, and pressed the little calling bell with a smile. "Hello? Anyone here?" She asked, hearing no response. A second later, in walked two girls- one slightly short, pale and thin, the other more built-up, taller, and following behind. "Oh, hey you two!"

The two young women smiled at their customer (and friend-of-a-few-years), and walked up to the counter. "Elianna-Elisanna-Evangeline-Emmerson, you are here, finally! You have taken _ages_ to get here!" The shorter girl said.

_'Elianna-Elisanna-Evangeline-Emmerson'_ laughed, leaning down on the counter with her hand resting under her chin. "Candy, if you call me that one more time, I won't bring the stock you need next time!" She joked.

Candy laughed, pushing her gold and black-rimmed glasses back onto her nose as if contemplating it. "Alright, alright! We really need that stock! I guess, do you want your package?" She asked, not-so-secretly (but it didn't matter seeing as she knew Eli wouldn't see her doing it) studying the features on her friend's face, before turning around just in time to see a pen drop, and rushing already to 're-arrange a few bits on the shelf' a few times, like she had done a thousand times already today., whilst waiting for an answer.

Eli laughed at that, hearing her nearly drop a few things in her haste to 'fix the shelves before they become out of control' (oh god, the absolute _horror_ of _one_ pen falling out of its holder- yeah, not really that big of a deal to anyone else, but it clearly was to Candy), before nodding, and saying yes- she _did_ want that package that she had spent _'ages'_ coming here to get.

Grenda looked down at Candy, slightly worried for her friend's recently worsening habit of keeping everything in place, before shrugging it off and going to get Eli's package so that Candy could finish doing... whatever she was doing. She came back with the package a few minutes later, laying it on the counter in front of its owner, and slightly jokingly pressing the customer bell. Eli looked up with a start, and shook her head, replacing her shocked expression with a smile, and thanking Grenda for the package. "You said it's new, right? And it's the last one? Like, the last, last one?"

"Of the town." Candy confirmed, picking up and putting the last pen back in its holder, and turning back around to face Eli, with a matching smile to hers.

"Of the world." Grenda added, nudging their customer from over the counter.

"Of the moon."

"Of the stars."

"Of th-"

"Of the universe, yes, I get it." Eli said, pretending to be slightly irritated. She sighed, and then somehow got into a _loong_ conversation with the girls, who had noticed her slightly less rushed attitude today, whilst she asked about the girls' other friends. 

"So, how's Mabel then?" Eli asked.

"Well, we have not seen her a lot since 'that time', but she's doing fine if I remember well enough." Candy replied.

"Mm, I suppose. I do miss her though, even if I don't come down here often." Eli said, with a small sigh. "How about Paz then?"

"The same, they are together a lot now you know."

"Mhm, yeah, I know. At least it's cute though."

"Yeah, it is!" Candy agreed. "What about you though? Have any luck with that new boyfriend? I hear the date went well."

"Yeah! And if news got to the town, then it's got to be good!" Grenda added, giving Eli a smile.

Said girl looked down, her hair falling over her eyes. "Yeah, well... he's a jerk. The date was fine, I suppose- he even told me he wanted to meet me again, and that's new for me. Nobody wants to date the town _doctor_ , so I guess it went well at first." She said, smiling a bit at the memory. It felt like she had left something out though..

"Did something happen?" Candy asked.

"Um, well... I sort of... showed him eye... and... yeah... you can guess. I tried to keep it hidden, but he was being _really_ inquisitive, and he seemed like a nice guy, so I told him not to freak out of anything, and he said that was fine and that he's probably seen worse, so I moved my hair out of the way and... _boom_ , like that, I made him feel sick, you could see it in his eyes. But the worst part was that eh still pretended to like me for a while after, so I didn't even notice until... until I got home, and my house had been trashed. I guess I just... can't trust anyone anymore, you know? Not since Cassie, not anymore. That's how I got this damn thing in the first place..." She said sadly, sweeping her hair out of her eyes.

She jumped slightly, when she felt a warm pair hands cup her cheeks, careful not to touch her eye. "But this is a gift, Elianna." Candy said softly, smiling at her friend.

"How is it a gift, Candy? That doesn't make sense..." Eli said, shaking her head slightly.

Candy kept her hands there, "Because then you will know when 'the right one' comes along, because they won't freak out, or run away, they'll love you for who you are- that's why people like you are special."

Eli gave a small laugh, and moved back a little. "Aw, come off it. But still... thanks." She said quietly, looking down as she felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. Thankfully, Grenda saved the moment.

"And hey, if we ever see that jerk who dumped you, we'll show him what it means to mess with our friend!" She said, punching the air.

Candy joined in, "Yeah! They won't mess with _us_!" She said, mirroring Grenda's actions.

Eli cracked a smile, "Aww, thanks you two! You guys are the best."

"We know we are!" Candy said, giggling and fist pumping her taller friend. She took a moment ot calm down, and then leaned over the counter, beckoning Eli closer. "Now, tell us something, I want to know more about..."

***Meanwhile, outside with Alkaid***

It had been a while now since Eli had gone into the shop, and Alkaid was beginning to get bored, _really_ bored. He huffed, scratching his itchy hair, and then laid down, choosing instead to try and sleep the time away. He didn't get long to do that though, before he felt someone poke his shoulder.

He yelped, sitting straight up, and shrinking away from his 'attacker', curling himself up into a small ball (so much for Bill training him to be _'aggressive'_ ) and hissing.

"Thought so." A gruff voice said. The owner of the voice kicked the small creature in front of him, earning a growl from said thing in return. "Hmm, feisty." They said unsarcastically.

"G-g-g-g..." Alkaid tried to speak, to tell this person to go away (yep, spending all that time around another human had really seemed to undo all Bill's training...) and leave him alone, but they simply laughed at him, kicking him in the ribs. The poor boy hissed, trying to get away, but held back the chain tying him to the store front. He pulled and tugged on it, but he couldn't get away, and he lacked the intelligence to try to _untie_ the knot at the end, meaning he was in actuality just tightening the chain to the store even more.

"Stupid creature." The person spat, with not an ounce of pity audible in their voice. "But don't worry, I don't want to hurt you... no, no. It's _you_ who's going to hurt someone _else_ \- I'll just be the one to save them. Now, hold still." The stranger (who seemed to be a man) bent down next to Alkaid, suddenly grabbing his arm.

And that was it- he _snapped_.

Alkaid growled, grabbing the person's hand in turn and bringing it to his mouth. He bit down with all his force, swallowing eagerly as he felt the hot blood rush down his suddenly _dry_ throat. The man fell back onto his butt, trying to pull back at his arm as he not-so-silently cursed the creature, which only caused the boy to tug harder on the man's arm.

"Let me go, demon!" The older man demanded, hitting his assailant around the head.

The 'demon' let go, falling back onto his back and laughing hysterically, fervently licking off the blood.

"What the hell is _wrong_ with you, boy?! I was right not to trust you- I knew they were wrong! You're not _him_ anymore, but _they_ don't see that! They don't _see_ that! You're just Cipher's plaything, and not even that! He doesn't even wa- _wait_ \- Gah!" He cut himself off, feeling the pain double in his arm. "Too bad I already- ah! Too bad I- oh _god_ this hurts! Too bad... I... I already planned for this to... happen." He finished off his pain-filled sentence with a slight smirk, which disappeared all too quickly before he fell into a quick coughing fit.

He calmed himself down, standing up again, and held his hand to his arm, looking down at the pitiful creature that lay before him- that was currently happily licking up the blood like a puppy and giggling to only himself.

"Pathetic." The person mumbled, glaring down at the boy with an expression of disgust and contempt. "And they say you never changed..." He turned around to stalk off, only looking back once behind him. "Enjoy yourself tonight, Dipper, because you won't ever see her again come morning..." And with that, he left the walkway...

***10 Minutes Later***

"Alright, bye you two, I'll bring the stock on Monday, I promise!"

"Okay, thank you! See you Monday!"

"Yeah, you too, bye!"

Eli walked out of the shop, with a new bag, filled to the brim with stuff, in hand, and bent down to where she could see Alkaid sitting. "Good boy, you didn't even move by the looks of it! And look, I got you some things! You can have them when you get home. Here, come on." She kneeled down on the floor, untying the knot (noting that it seemed a little tighter than she had left it- maybe it was just her imagination?) from the loop on the storefront to let him move around a bit. Perhaps, if she was able to see well, she would've seen the small splotches of blood on Alkaid's face, or the tiny patches of someone else's clothing littered along the floor, but she didn't, and so she instead smiled, and gave him a quick scratch behind the ears, to which the boy purred.

"You're a softie, you know that?" She said jokingly, giving him another scratch on the head, just to hear his reaction. "Anyway, here. This is one of the things I got you." She said, rummaging around in the new bag of hers. She pulled something out of it, and showed it to him, laughing at his confused noise. "You put it on... like... _this_!" She said, as she put the strange object over his lower face. 

Alkaid tilted his head, then tried to look down at the object, giving it a experimental tug- it didn't come off. He frowned, and then tried to dig his claws underneath the thing, getting a little more frantic with each attempt. Eventually, Eli stopped him.

"Hey, hey... calm down, it's fine. It's not gonna hurt you or anything, it's just a muzzle, silly. I bought it so that you could come out with me again sometime- it's just so you don't try to bite anyone, I promise."

The boy ignored her, now desperately trying to take it off, hissing in distress. "Oh, wait! Is it too tight? Here, let me loosen it a bit." She moved her hand towards the object in question to loosen it, and pulled back the straps, so that it fit better on his face. "There you go and- hey! Stop that _right now_!" Eli pulled her hand back just as Alkaid growled and tried to bite her, glaring at him until he looked down (well, at least she knew that that muzzle _worked_ now- proved by the fact that she still had a hand). "Don't do it again, I thought better of you!" She shouted, raising her voice at him. "And now we're going straight home, I _would've_ let you have a run in the forest, but now we aren't- so well done you. Let's go." She gave him a sharp tug on the chain, and he _knew_ he was in trouble just by the tone of her voice, so he sulkily walked on behind her, trying to not to complain as the ground rubbed his hands and feet red raw or as a chill ran up his spine from the growing cold; he would just have to keep his tears to himself...

***5 hours later***

A few hours later and everything was forgiven, Alkaid having got a thwack on the head for sulking as soon as they had got inside, and then Eli, having felt bad, quickly apologising and taking his muzzle off for him; so all in all, it was fine.

Now though, everything was calm and relaxed. Eli had gone off to do... something, in the bathroom, and Alkaid was lying on the floor by the fire, happily mumbling random noises to himself as he drifted in and out of sleep.

Eli came back, wearing an old grey jumper and having tied up her hair. "Hmm, let's see how much of a disaster _this_ is going to be..." She muttered to herself. "Right, Ty-Ty, c'mere!" She called, putting her hands on her hips.

'Ty-Ty' didn't respond, _obviously_ too busy having a good nap to bother getting up and investigating what all the fuss was about (that was Bill's 'pet peeve' with him- if he wasn't out on a summons, 'exploring', or getting himself into trouble, then Alkaid was 100%, _always_ , sleeping, or laying by the fire; at least he wasn't getting in the way though...).

"Ty-Ty, come _on_!" Eli tried again, but still nothing. "Ty- _rone_!" She shouted, stamping her foot on the floor. That _certainly_ got his attention. He jumped up, looking all around in a panic, until he saw Eli (and no, he _still_ didn't know who on earth this "Tyrone" person was- was there someone he couldn't see?). He crawled over to her, giving her the look of _'what do you want I was busy sleeping'_ , but not being able to express it very well. Eli sighed, and told him to wait there for a minute. When she came back, she held a small piece of chicken in her hand, waving it in front of Alkaid.

Alkaid eyed it hungrily, his tongue immediately falling out of his mouth as he tried to grab it with his teeth. "Ah! Ah! _Ah_! No, not yet, follow me first." She said, holding it just out of his reach as she began to walk back towards the bathroom, with Alkaid eagerly following behind at her heels. Once she reached the bathroom, she lured the boy inside, locking the door once he was in. Said boy whined, but she didn't give in, instead frowning at him slightly, wondering how the hell she was going to do this...

"Just... sit for a moment, would you?" She said, pointing to the floor. Alkaid lied down at her feet, on the spot she was pointing at, and looked up at her, letting his tail flop quickly up and down and his small, fluffy ears perk up (otherwise known as a completely _shameless_ Alkaid way of asking for food- proven to be _especially_ effective on a certain yellow "being with no weaknesses"). "If the sound of your tail is anything to go by, then you can stop asking for food, because you aren't getting any." Eli said firmly, moving her feet away from the boy. "Now hold still."

  
Eli kneeled down in front of him, trying to fumble around with his clothes, before she eventually managed to wrangle them off of Alkaid, throwing them down onto the floor into a pile by the side of the bathtub. "Now, get in." She threw the piece of chicken she had in her hand onto the other side of the tub, and gave Alkaid a little nudge, standing up again.

Said boy tried, and failed, to scramble into the bath (seeing as it was too tall for him), not even realising that it was filled with water, or what it was for. Eli took pity on him and helped him up, picking him up- "Alleeeyoop!"- and sitting him down in the water. She stood back, expecting him to splash or something, but she was relieved to find he didn't. She breathed a sigh of relie-

In an _instant_ , everything turned to chaos. Alkaid started screaming his lungs out, trying desperately to claw his way out of the bathtub and making a _huge_ wave of water come flying out of the bathtub onto the floor, shocking Eli into tripping and falling over, only _just_ able to grab onto the sink to catch herself. Panting a little, she cleared her throat, and tried to calm down- right now, she wasn't too worried about the state of the bathroom (though _normally_ she would), but instead she was more worried about what had happened to Alkaid.

She walked to the edge of the bathtub, blurrily seeing his shaking body pushed back against the other side of the tub.

"Tyrone, what's wrong?" She said quietly, not wanting to panic him any further. The boy ignored her, only turning around to face away from her, starting to sob his poor little heart out into his arms. Eli looked at his back, and had to hold back a scream. "Oh... my... god... What... the... fuck...?" She whispered in shock, seeing a huge, scarred marking carved into his back. From what she could make out, it looked like it had scabbed over, but it must've re-opened recently for it to have blood on it...

She scanned the rest of his body, noticing other little marks and bruises (not seeing the ones on his hands and feet from earlier), some looking like bite marks, others making it look like he had been hit with a bat. There were a few more too- most notably, stitch marks all across his torso- they were extremely faded, but still _just_ visible if she looked hard enough. Damn, what the hell did someone _do_ to him... it looks bad... _really_ bad. Poor child... she was sure that whatever he had done, it couldn't have been so bad as to deserve _that_. What was she even going to _do_ now? Those scars were probably what made him scream... it would've hurt like hell if any of them were open, and the one on his back certainly was.

"Tyrone... come here, I won't hurt you, I promise."

Said creature whimpered, letting out a small cry as his back began to sting, feeling like someone had decided to jab him with a hot poker.

"Tyrone... _please_ kid, come on." She held her arms out to him, and his eyes widened for a split second before they fluttered shut and he slowly began to slump forward, passing out from the pain. Eli only _just_ managed to catch him, wrapping her arms around him immediately, not even caring if she got wet. She grimaced when she felt him flinch under her, and decided that it would better to just do this quickly and then get him out- he didn't deserve any more pain after this, not after what she had just seen.

She carefully leaned him back against the back of the bathtub and quickly got to work- washing his hair (being careful not to touch the little horn things on his head), his face, his nails (which were absolutely _filthy_ ) and the rest of his body.

After that, she lifted him out of the tub and wrapped him in a fluffy towel, resting him against the side of the tub whilst she went off to find him some clothes. She came back a few minutes later, with the softest things she could find. A pastel-galaxy turtleneck sweater, a thin white long-sleeve top, and a pair of black three-quarter lengths, that all, despite being for a 18 or 19 year-old (they were old clothes Eli just had lying around- she might as well have used them, besides, she could buy Alkiad more clothes tomorrow, right now it was getting a bit late for that), were rather big on him, seeing as he was only about 14 or 15 in his appearance.

With that done, she scooped him up in her arms, easily lifting him up, and carried him out of the bathroom, laying him down in front of the fire on her lap. Alkaid stirred a little, opening his eyes little, but Eli quickly sent him back to sleep, hushing him, and running a hand through his damp, curly hair. She smiled slightly, hearing the beginnings of a purr start to rise from the boy's throat, and tried not to think of all the horrible ways he could've got those scars (a freak accident, perhaps? No, too many of them for that. Got in a scrap with some other forest creature? No, he seemed too... too frightened, to do that. A person? Probably, but why the hell would someone do that? It just seems cruel, _way_ too cruel)...

Eli sighed, starting to hum something. It was something she had learned a few years back, but she still sung it from time to time, even though the memory of the person who had taught it to her, hurt to think of. She sighed once more, letting herself just sing what she knew so well...

_"We're alone here,_

_But not apart._

_And I love you,_

_With all your heart._

_And I'll stay here,_

_Until the dawn._

_But when you wake up,_

_I'll be gone._

_And when you dream I,_

_I'll still be here._

_Because I know that,_

_You're happy there._

_So don't cry or say,_

_Goodbye to me._

_It's only goodnight,_

_In your dreams..."_

Eli let the rest of the memory play out in her head, staring blankly ahead into the fireplace, barely noticing the small smile making its way onto her face.

_"You are such a good singer, you know that?" The brunette smiled, giving her "friend" (oh, they were much more that) a thumbs-up._

_The smaller girl smiled back, setting down her guitar._ _"You really think so? Hey, thanks Ellie! Here, as a thanks for your 'continued support', mwah!" She gave her supporter a small kiss, secretly dying at seeing the brightest blush spread across her friend's cheek in return._

_Her friend giggled quietly, before they both looked at each other, and erupted into peals of laughter, the shorter girl falling into the other's lap. Once they had calmed down, they took a long moment to stare into each other's eyes, beautiful chocolate-brown irises meeting equally mesmerising cherry-red ones. For a while, they continued to stare at each other, until finally, the taller girl smiled. "Never leave me. Ever. You promise...?"_

_"I never will, Elianna, I never will..."_

Eli cut herself out of the memory, looking down as she noticed Alkaid shifting beneath her. She must've been crying, because her tears had fallen down onto his face, making his skin turn red. "Sorry, Ty-Ty." She whispered quietly, sniffing a bit and wiping her tears off his cheek. She stared off into the fire again, unknowingly stroking back the boy's hair. "At least I have you now, kid... At least I have you..."

Her distant thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. "What? This late?" She muttered, quickly wiping her face clean, and gently laying Alkaid down on the floor, leaving him to sleep as she went to answer the door.

Eli opened the door, giving a slight glare to the person in front of her. "Yes?" She asked, slightly abruptly.

"My name is Phil, Phil Pines." The man said.

Really, a _Phil_? What could that even be short for? Phillip? Philippé? Philippo? No, sounds too... foreign, to her at least. Still, she hadn't seen a "Phil" around here before, but it wasn't completely unheard of for new residents to visit her, especially if they needed help with something- but this late though? Seriously? He didn't sound particularly young though, in fact, if given to the chance to talk to him properly, she might even say that she recognised that voice and-

_"Ahem."_ The man cleared his throat, bringing Eli's thoughts back to the situation. 

"Oh yes, sorry, _Phil_. Why are you here, Phil? This late at night."

"Oh, err... I'm sorry if it's the wrong time, but I err... wondered if I might ask something?" They sounded apologetic, almost as if they really didn't want to bother her. His voice made him sound kinda... helpless.

Eli sighed silently, and put on the best smile she could muster. "Alright, sure, what is it?"

"Um... I... was kinda hoping that you, umm... maybe had something to clean this cut up with? I erm... went into the forest and I kinda got lost and I fell over something and now I've got this cut, you see?" The man held his hand out to her, so that she could see said cut. Even with her half-blurred vision, it looked like someone had slashed the skin with something sharp, and it seemed too... neat, to be from falling over, but Eli just shrugged, nodding her head to the man.

"Oh yeah, I see it. Wait there a minute, I'll get you some bandages, hold on." She shut the door just over halfway so that the cold air wouldn't start to seep into the house, before walking back into the house and into the bathroom. She was just opening the bathroom cabinet to grab a few bandages, when she heard loud whimpers and pained cries come from the living room. "Tyrone!" She shouted, dropping the bandages. She ran out of the bathroom, avoiding the last of the wet patches that she hadn't cleaned up yet, and rushed straight into the living room.

As soon as she got to Alkaid, she knelt down on the floor by him. "What's wrong, Ty-Ty? What's wrong?" She shook him gently, until she noticed that he had small things lodged in the back of his neck, his back, his right arm, his right hand and his legs- it was quite clear. that whatever had been done to the boy had obviously been done from _behind_ him, seeing as he had been facing away from the rest of the room. Completely forgetting the stranger at the door, Eli tried to take them out (there were about six of them in total, and each one of them was lodged in quite well- they looked very much like little tranquiliser darts), but stopping when Alkaid suddenly opened his eyes.

Even though she couldn't see _exactly_ , Eli knew something was off. His eyes were locked on hers, not even blinking, and his pupils were blown, the green and blue of his eyes inl just visible around the edges of his irises. Sleepily, and obviously _heavily_ drugged, he got up onto all fours, starting to growl at the girl in front of him.

Eli would've laughed at the creature's weak attempts to scare her, only for the fact that she was more worried about what had happened to him to care if it was funny or not. "Tyrone... lay down, you're not well..." She said carefully, not wanting to provoke him in case he hurt himself trying to do something stupid.

Alkaid snarled but slowly started to lay back down, probably as an effect of the tranquilizers rather than anything else. Eli was just about to approach him, when she felt a cold pair of hands cover her eyes and something metal be pressed against her neck. She felt her breath hitch in her throat. "Wh-what's going on?! Who's there? Wh-who is that?! You let me go!" She shouted indignantly, trying, and failing, to move the person's hands away from her face. She tried to kick the person away from her, even trying to bite them, but nothing she could do could get them off of her- in fact, she barely even felt them _flinch_.

She was about to scream, when the voice of a familiar man, the man at the doorway, stopped her short.

"You know, I would feel sorry for you, Summers."

"What, no! STO-"

_**BANG!** _

  
Eli felt dark red blood trickle down from her neck, and the hands over her eyes released her, letting her crumple to the ground. She tried to get up, but someone held their foot to her head, making her gasp in pain as a burning sensation tingled in her her lungs. "What did you... What did you do?" She rasped, still trying to get up.

"Nothing you need to care about, kid."

"I'm not a-" She cut herself off, having a coughing fit, and then tried to carry on. "I'm not a k-kid! Wh-what did you do the boy?!"

"Again, nothing you need to care about. But I wouldn't try to help you anyway- I know _all about_ your little demon accident. You're not so innocent, so don't act like it- if you _want_ the devil, you _get_ the devil. Besides, there's not much you can do about it now anyway."

"Hey! What do you mean?! When you let me go, I'm gonna... h-hey... I'm gonna- U-uh-I... I'm gonna... I'm... gonna... gonna... I'm gonna..." Eli closed her eyes, her whole body going numb and warm. Her breathing slowed and she fell asleep, no longer able to fight.

The man slowly, constantly checking to see if she was still awake, lifted his foot off of the girl, stepping over to her to get to the creature that he had spent _oh so long_ trying to get to. But now, having the thing right here in front of him, right where he needed it- it was too easy really. He bent down to grab the demon, only stopping when he heard a growl. How on _earth_ was that thing able to sense him? Six tranquilizers _should've_ been enough, _more_ than enough actually...

He pushed the creature onto its back, so that he could see its face, and found that no, it was actually asleep- but it was probably fighting to wake up. Knowing this, the man quickly picked the thing up, staying still for a moment when it began to hiss under its breath and open its eyes.

"Hush, demon. Go back to sleep." He said firmly, using two fingers to gently (not that he really cared, but he needed to keep him unharmed until he got back to the lab) close the thing's eyelids. Thankfully, it kept its closed, its tongue lolling out of its mouth letting the man get a good view of its sharp, jagged teeth. If he ever needed more proof that this wasn't his great-nephew, then right now the man had it. He looked down at it in disgust, and began to walk off, going back through the hallway and out through the front door. He grabbed the keys off the side table as he left, locking the door behind him and throwing the keys down on the grass beside him- no-one was going to need it anyway.

With a grim look on his face, he set off into the night, carrying the _"poor little lost demon"_ in his arms. No-one would stop him now- after all, no-one knew what he was doing. Cipher was _"_ dead" in that house fire ( _well_ , he wouldn't be coming back to this world, he thought), so he was out of the way; that pink-haired demon was stuck with that cult now (he still didn't know why _she_ was getting involved in all this, though he knew she did have _quite_ a history with trying to help people) and now, the "blind girl" (it was _her_ fault for thinking demons had real emotions) was out of the way... just as he had wanted.

Stanford sighed, a smug grin making its way to his face as he looked down at the thing laying peacefully in his arms, and laughed- _oh, how he was going to have some fun with it._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, first off, I just wanna say thank you for actually reading this, I feel like this this is my worst chapter yet, so yeah sorry about that. I hope you enjoyed the Alkaid not-knowing-how-to-human, or should I say, how to demon, seeing as he really is quite meek when he's on his own (there is a reason for that, as always!). Anyway, I hope you liked the character I used- Eli (well, Elianna-Elisanna-Evangeline-Emmerson Summers, but Eli for short XD). Yes, she's an OC, rant all you want about that, but she isn't going to have a part in the plot, she's just a side character sort of, who got used for the filler chapter, so don't worry (though she isn't completely unrelated to one of the characters, you might be able to guess- I did drop a few hints, especially that last part (hint hint, the eye colours) of the memory...). I hinted to her in the very first chapter at some point, if you notice. Essentially, she's this really sweet (I say sweet, just don't piss her off :D) girl (she's somewhere between 23 and 27 (though she's also technically 18- can you guess why?)), who lives on the sort-of outskirts of the Falls (which is what I tend to call Gravity Falls for short btw)- so not so far out as Bill or Emilys' homes, but not too close to the town either, probably about a 40 minute walk from the Mystery Shack, at most. She would kinda be like one of the background characters, sort of, but she's known to be very good with medicine and helps out the townspeople who need it (though not as much anymore, because of something). Anyway, she probably won't appear again (at least not in this particular story, she may pop up in other stories of mine, maybe?), maybe she might in another filler chapter though, just as like an "aftermath" scene of what happened at the end, if you want. Ideas still appreciated!
> 
> ~Star 🌠
> 
> -14, 812 words


End file.
